Terror
by frozenfemale
Summary: Sendo gasped loudly.The red liquid was… BLOOD… and the bubbles were… COCKROACHES. Ohhhh.... SD boys are now facing a challenge far worse that justbasketball.... something so scary.... something with no name except maybe Terror itself....
1. Prologue

**Title: Terror…**

A/N: First of all, I want to apologize for um, updating this story without adding any new chapters. Actually, I just changed some stuff in the Prologue and chapter 1. I realized that my language confused some readers, and I'm sorry (why on Earth am I so formal??) Well, anyway thanks to all the reviewers. I mean seriously, thanks.  

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Shirodachi: Your review is not supercritical! Really, thanks!

Sharon: I hope I will be able to. To tell you the truth, I've almost no idea where the story is going.

Eliar Swiftfire: seriously, I thank you for all the suggestions you made.

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**Prologue**

            '*Pant*.' Running, trying to keep a steady pace, a steady rhythm in breathing.

             'Don't look back. *Pant*, don't… *wheeze* look back… *pant*' Repeating it again and again like a chant between tired pants.

            Splatter. The rain was coming down, harder than before. Lightning whip cracked above, lighting up the dark, black night-sky outside. Boom. Thunder shouted aloud. Gritting his teeth, he continued running, panicky. 

            'Don't…*gasp* look…*pant* back,' he reiterated with his eyes closed. He was losing his grip on the rhythm he had just now. He was panicking even though he couldn't hear anything but the rain drops and thunder clashes. Loud, deafening. Scaring him out of his wits. He couldn't hear, yeah, but he felt it.

            'Take… *wheeze* it easy… Don't… *pant* look back… *gasp* Rhythm…'

            The moon outside, quarter moon, was shrouded by… clouds, and yet he felt… saw the moon grinning, leering at him, and he still felt it, closer, coming closer.

            'I shouldn't… huh… have stayed… *pant* back… *wheeze* to practice…' Still running, losing rhythm, panicking.

            'Forget… huh… it. Just…*wheeze* don't look… *pant* back.' But he couldn't do it anymore. Fear had gripped him in an icy grip and was tightening its hold, making him totally lose control. He looked, and never had a basketball player make a more terrible than just looking behind.

            His mouth twisted into a silent scream. He tried to scream, but the shock kept his words, his voice down. Fear, like he never felt before now dominated him, his mind, totally breaking his connection with reality. Just before he crossed the threshold from sanity to insanity, he managed to think,

            'Too late… I shouldn't have.'

            And that was the end of it. End of a basketball player's control over his own heart and mind. What he saw managed to break his mind. But when that… thing hurt him, broke his bones, his scream finally escaped, blood-curding and eerily without emotions, not even fear. Just a scream of pain that echoed through the hallways, not going far because of the drowning sounds of the thunder and rain. He was beyond. Beyond any feel of terror, just pain. Beyond any help. His eyes were empty and that was the worst part of all. Empty, just blank.     

A/N: I know my *pant*s and *wheeze*s are like repeated. Sorry for the limited vocab. And pls review! Thanks!

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	2. The Voice and The Evil Presence

**Title: Terror…**

A/N: This is also an 'edited' chapter, as in I replaced it changing a few things according to what the reviewers reviewed (I'm not really sure how to continue so you people are going to have to wait a while I get my ideas straight) 

**Chapter 1- The voice and Evil Presence**

            'Mutoh? Mutoh? Where are you?' Maki the captain of Kainan's basketball team asked.

            'He wasn't seen in school the whole day,' Jin answered Maki, at the same time trying to shoot a three-pointer. It sailed right into the net.

            'Nani? Why's he skipping practices? Tomorrow's the first game. What's on his mind?' Maki asked, fuming, and yet, Jin detected the concern in his voice.

            'Maki-san, he's probably not well, so he's resting at home. Anyway…'

            'AHHHHH!!!' a long chilling scream cut Jin off. All the basketball players looked up startled. Usually, they wouldn't get distracted that easily, but something in that scream… without words, or consent of any kind, they ran towards the scream.

            It was coming from a locker, shrill and inexplicably unbearable. There, a guy was screaming his head off, hands over his ears, eyes shut tight. The reason of his terror became obvious immediately. A corpse, if you could still call it that, lay crumpled on floor, the white floor which was tainted with a lot of blood. When I said the body was crumpled, I meant really crumpled. It was hard to tell that it used to be a human, an alive being.

            'Then again, maybe not,' Jin managed to say, his eyes brimming with tears at the sight of that body. Kiyota gave him a questioning look. He too was on the verge of tears.

            'Maybe he wasn't sick,' Jin whispered, trying and failing to hold back his tears. That mangled body couldn't be… could NOT be…

            'MUTOHHH!!' he screamed, tears now uncontrollable, but he didn't care.

            'MUTOHHH!!' he cried again and again. And suddenly he heard a voice from the back of his head,

            '_Chanting his name won't bring him back *laughter*. __Why don't you trot over to Shoyo and warn them before I come to get them *laughter*.' That voice was terrible. It had a sense of… evil… that Jin couldn't explain, and that evil cackle… he wondered whether he actually heard it. It was a very terrible sound (I know it's a crappy explanation)_

* * * * * * * * 

            The basketball players were led away by the police officers after the questioning.

            'How on Earth…? What on Earth could have killed Mutoh and taken all his bones away at the same time? All?' Maki muttered, distractedly running his hands through his hair. He was told that every single bone in Mutoh's body was removed, and yet, the organs were still there, undamaged. Almost unaltered.

            'Shoyo,' Jin said softly.

            'Nani?' Kiyota asked. The rest of the team looked at Jin questioningly.

            'Shoyo will be its next victim. We have to go there to stop it.'

            'It? Why did you say it?' Maki asked, though he sort of understood.

            'Because the THING which killed Mutoh could not be a human. Nor can the voice in my head,' Jin replied.

            'Jin, explain properly.' Maki said coaxingly, yet he did not disbelieve Jin. He himself felt some evil, lurking presence in school, no in Kanagawa… Shoyo. 

            'I heard it. It said that chanting Mutoh's name is of no use. We should protect Shoyo which would be its next victim. Then there was this laughter, more like an evil cackle, and it's the worst I've ever heard,' Jin said shuddering. Everybody was quiet, thinking, or so it seemed at least. Maki had the feeling that besides him, no one took the black-haired three-pointer seriously.

            'Okay,' Maki said making his decision. Jin was right. No way a human could kill someone and take out all Mutoh's bones without damaging his organs. Not even in a month, and definitely not in a day.

            'We're going.'

            'Demo…'

            'Maki-san…' The rest of players disagreed. What Jin said was totally… weird, ridiculous. It couldn't be true. 

'We're going.' Maki's tone hardened. The rest of the players recoiled, slightly. Then, reluctantly, they nodded. 

* * * * * * * * 

            Every student in Shoyo turned at the sight of the Kainan basketball players. Murmurs were heard everywhere. (I won't repeat it… you know, the usual stuff.) Some girls even went up to Maki and Jin to talk to them. Unfortunately for them, Maki and Jin wasn't in a talking mood, and so they declined politely. 

            They continued their way to the basketball court. Jin was getting more uncomfortable with every step he took. He was worried.

            'Ito, you're prone of making fouls. Watch it.' Fujima's voice floated from the basketball court. Maki slid the door open. All the players turned to see who they were.

            'Maki…' Fujima's voice trailed away.

            'Excuse us, but we have something important to tell you guys,' Maki said a little uncomfortably. Right now, he wondered whether they would believe Jin's story, or will they laugh at their faces. What Jin said was quite far-fetched… and almost impossible to believe.

            'Shohoku and Ryonan…'

            'Nani?' 

            'We have to get Ryonan and Shohoku here too,' Jin repeated. All the Shoyo players, including Fujima and Hanagata were staring at them, obviously wondering what the hell was wrong with them. Then all of a sudden Fujima said,

            'No, they'll come by themselves. We just have to wait.' He had heard it too. The voice with an evil cackle. And Hanagata stared at him, goose bumps rising, yet trying not to jump to conclusion.

            'Could it be… Does this have anything to do with that feeling… evil feeling…?' he questioned himself.

* * * * * * * * 

            Boink. A bump started rising from a red (or orange?) head. Haruko sweat-dropped. The well known Gorilla, captain of Shohoku basketball club has just hit the redhead Sakuragi who called himself tensai for the fifth time today.

            'Do'aho,' a monotonous voice said.

            'Nani?' the redhead beginner asked, ready to throw a punch at the black (messy) haired freshman, Kaede Rukawa. (Rukawa's fans don't kill me, his hair is a little messy). 

            'Listen, all of you! Tomorrow's the game between us and Kainan. First game of the Final League. Final League! So all of you keep…' Gori, whose real name was Akagi, was shouting, obviously losing his patience. But he was cut-off by a female voice.

            'Mutoh! Mutoh is DEAD!' Ayako said… no screamed, tears steaming down her face. Her voice was out of control. Haruko quickly went to her, trying to calm her down.

            'Nani?' Kogure asked, clearly shocked. Mitsui started. Ryota, a sophomore was staring at Ayako, a blush rising up his cheeks. 

            'Yes, Mutoh was… murdered,' Ayako continued, trying her best to calm down. Murdered… Mitsui couldn't deny it anymore, that feeling… it's been there. There was something evil… something worse than evil in Kanagawa. He could feel it.

            '_Why don't you visit them? *laughter*. It __might be fun. They're in Shoyo now *laughter*,' Kaede Rukawa jerked his head so hard that all the members turned to stare at him, including Ryota who had been busy staring at Ayako. Mitsui looked at Rukawa with concern, which was a first. _

            Rukawa broke into cold sweat, totally oblivious to all the stares he was receiving. What was with that voice? It was full of every bad element one could name. Anger, fear, frustration. Everything, and yet, there was no humanity, no sympathy in that voice. Rukawa, who, though unconsciously, was seldom scared of anything, and had no feelings himself, realized that for the first time in his life, he was afraid. 

            'Rukawa, daijoibu ka?' Ayako asked, she was nearly calming down, but the way Rukawa was acting made her nervous all over again. 

            'Rukawa, oi, Rukawa!' Ryota called when he realized that Rukawa, deep in thought (or nightmare, judging the head jerk) didn't answer to his precious Ayako's call. Rukawa jerked again, as if coming out of a trance.

            'Nani?' 

            'Rukawa, are you all right?' It was Mitsui this time. He was worried about the way Rukawa was acting. It seemed to tally with that presence he'd felt. He felt it in Kainan yesterday, and it was almost impossible to say that Mutoh's murder was a coincidence. Now he felt that presence in…

            'Shoyo.' It was Mitsui's turn to jerk, and he broke out into cold sweat at that monotonous sound of Rukawa's voice. That is exactly where he feels the presence now. Shoyo.

            'What's wrong with you Rukawa, Mitsui?' Yasuda asked. 

            'They're in Shoyo. The Kainans,' Rukawa said, trying to make eye contact with Mitsui for reasons he himself didn't know. All he knew was that he was scared, heck, he was terrified, and the only other person who felt that way was Mitsui. Yet what would he get from the eye contact with Mitsui? He himself didn't know. 

            'Let's go to Shoyo,' Ayako said hurriedly, her eyes still red.

            'Wait a minute, Kitsune… how do you know they're in Shoyo?' Sakuragi asked.

            'Funny that you should use your brains at a time like this. It's funny to even know that you have a brain… They just are okay?' Mitsui said, caustically. Hanamichi was about to reply when Akagi hit him on the head again and said,

            'Let's go.' Reluctantly Sakuragi followed.

            'Sempai…' Rukawa said softly. Mitsui just nodded. The fear on their faces were so plain that Ryota wondered what was wrong with them. Besides Sakuragi and his gang, Mitsui and Rukawa were the only few people who weren't easily scared. What was on their mind? 

* * * * * * * * 

            Sendo started. He suddenly stopped running for a while.

            '_Mutoh's dead *laughter*. __They're waiting at Shoyo. Waiting for *laughter*__ Ryonan and Shohoku.' The voice was so… evil. It rang in his ears... no his head. That evil cackle rang in his head. Sendo trembled slightly._

            'Sendo! What are you doing? Get that ball!' Uozumi shouted. But his voice seemed to come from miles away, where everything was foggy.

            'Who's they? Why are they waiting?' he asked, whispering his question out loud.

            '_Kainans are in Shoyo. Both Kainan and Shoyo are…_

            'Sendo daijoubu ka?' 

'Koshino's voice,' Sendo told himself mentally, not really paying attention to it.

            _'…waiting because Jin asked them to.__ If you want to know the real reason, why don't you all go there yourselves? *laughter*,' Sendo was starting to really worry now. Usually he was cool and the 'everything will be alright' type. He would be the one coaxing the worried people. But now, he wondered. _

            'Earth to Sendo! Wake up!' Koshino's voice cut through the misty fog in his brains, and suddenly, a sense of evil shot up his nerves when Koshino's hand made contact with his.    A sense of something terrible, evil.

            Koshino looked at Sendo worriedly, shaking him like crazy. He could feel something, a presence, an evil presence in Shoyo and was wondering whether it got to Sendo. When Sendo jerked himself out of his daze, he saw something different in Sendo's eyes. Something he'd never seen before in the past 16 years that Sendo had been his best friend, Fear, and worry.

            'Boys, listen, this is terrible news. Mutoh… he's dead. He was murdered yesterday night,' Taoka sensei who'd just arrived said softly. Sendo and Koshino were so shocked that they let out a gasp and said, 

            'Shoyo,' at the same time. They exchanged looks of pure fright, but then Sendo realized that when Koshino let him go, the sense of evil was gone, but the voice in his head was still lingering, nearly driving him crazy. 

            'Sendo-san, Koshino-san, what's wrong with you?' Hikoichi Aida, a freshman asked.

            'Kainans. They're in Shoyo, and they're waiting for us,' Sendo explained. Everybody stared at him, and for once doubted him. Sendo always had that air around him which seems to lure trust, but now they doubted him. Doubted his sanity.

            Everybody except 2 of them. Koshino and Taoka sensei, who looked at him, clearly surprised. 

            'How'd you know?' he asked in a tone of surprise but not disbelieve.

            'Nani?' Uekusa asked.

            'Sendo's right. They are in Shoyo,' the sensei replied.

            'Let's visit them,' Koshino said softly, but his reluctance was very obvious. Sendo looked reluctant too.

            'All of you, please go and send my condolence. I can't make it, I'm already late,' Taoka sensei told them, leaving the gym.

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A/N: If is still have some mistakes, I'm sorry, pls bear with me. I'm still an amateur writer. Thanks! And as usual, pls review. I welcome any kinds of review, so pls don't fell guilty to review. But most probably I won't redo these two chaps again.


	3. The Chase

**Title: Terror…**

A/N: Thanks for all your reviews. Pls forgive me if I make anymore mistakes, and do please review me to tell me what is wrong. Thanks again. Er… I'm not really sure where this fic is leading to, so please forgive me if I'm a little slow in updating it.

Eliar Swiftfire: Er… slasher fic? Does that mean yaoi? Then, NO! I'm not writing a yaoi story. (No offense to the yaoi fans)

sLL: Thanks, but to tell you the truth, I'm not sure where this story is leading to.

Krappkarmin: You like Rukawa, Sendo, Fujima and Jin? Me too. In my first story, beside the main character, Aya, they were the secondary characters. I'm looking forward to your story.

bem: Thanks, but as I said earlier, pls don't get your hopes to high, I'm really not sure where this story is going.

Alexia: Thanks for the comments. Um… about the *pants* and *laughter*, I myself thought it was very weird to keep repeating it, but I couldn't put it in a better way. And about the POV, I'll try to do that, but to tell you the truth, I've never done that before, so please continue reviewing and point out my mistakes. Er, and is it possible to write from someone's point of view without actually writing Sendo's POV on the top, or in other words without actually making a proper difference from the rest of the story? Arigatou.

Ayu: Thanks a lot, your review means a lot to me.  

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**Chapter 2- The Chase**

            Now, all the members of the four basketball club who were joining the Final League were in Shoyo, listening about Mutoh's murder.

            'Impossible!' Uozumi exclaimed.

            'Yeah, how can all the bones be removed? All! Without damaging the organs?' Hasegawa asked disbelievingly.

            'I know, okay! We all know that it is nearly impossible. But that's not what brought us here. I heard some kind of voice in my head,' Jin said, noticing that 3 people started at what he said. Kaede Rukawa, from Shohoku High, Akira Sendo, from Ryonan High, and Kenji Fujima, from Shoyo High. (To those who read my first fic, Friends Lover and Brothers, see the similarity? *grins*) 

            'It told me… where to go, and… it scared the hell out of me,' he continued.

            'Where to go?' Ikegami asked.

            'Shoyo High,' Rukawa said. Everybody turned. Akagi realized that this was the first time Rukawa wasn't sleeping in the midst of something.

            'Nani?' Will you explain properly?!' Sakuragi asked, losing his temper. Outside the night had dawn. The only light was the shimmering light from the moon, and the twinkle of the stars.

            'The voice told me to come to Shoyo,' Sendo said.

            'It told me to that Shohoku and Ryonan would come here by themselves,' Fujima said in a voice barely above a whisper. Then there was silence. A silence so deep that it could be felt.

            *Swish*. Everyone turned, but it was just the wind.

            'Why are we so jumpy?' Ryota asked himself. 

            'This is ridiculous.'

            'I don't know whether you all feel this, but I feel a kind of, I dunno… evil presence? Its here in Shoyo. It was in my school yesterday, but I ignored it, now Mutoh's…,' Maki said, his voice wavering dangerously, breaking the silence so suddenly that a few people jumped. 

            'I felt it… feel it,' Hanagata said softly.

            'Yeah,' Koshino said.

            'Me too.' It was Mitsui, and everybody stared at them, obviously debating whether they were serious, or just trying to make a joke out of this.

            'For goodness sakes! This is so ridiculous. Are you saying that this… murderer has telepathy and an unexplainable sense of presence around him? That's impossible!' Akagi nearly screamed out in frustration.

            'For a human to remove all the bones of another without damaging their organs is also impossible. Do you deny that?' Fujima countered. Nobody could find counter-ideas to prove Fujima wrong. They just stared at each other uneasily, not voicing out their thoughts, but understanding them perfectly. Then, suddenly, something struck Ryota.

            'Hey…, look, all those who hear the so-called 'voice' stand here,' Ryota said pointing to his left,

            'And those who feel the 'presence', there,' he continued, pointing to his right.

            'See, there is a player from each team,' Ryota said softly, wonderingly. Although all this couldn't be right, couldn't be possible, he found himself starting to believe it.

* * * * * * * * 

'This is a whole lot of crap,' Ito said. The wind was blowing, loudly. The whole school was blanketed with silence. Besides the gym, the rest of the school was dark, pitch black.

            'I'm going to get a drink,' Ito continued, even though he didn't really need a drink. Heck, he didn't even want a drink, but the silence was unnerving him. He could feel something deep down, and though he didn't know what it was, he didn't like it and he didn't want to know it... The quieter it was, the stronger the feeling got. That was the main reason he broke the silence just now.

            'You're just spooking yourself out,' Ito said, walking towards the door.

            'You're right. I could do with a drink too. I'll follow you,' Kiyota said, following Ito out of the door. He too didn't really need a drink, but he didn't think he could stay in that room anymore. Something was wrong, very wrong in there, and yet, he knew, something was wrong out there too. But still, he just wanted, craved to go out, get out of the room and run for his precious life. 

            'Ito… be careful,' Hanagata said. The feeling was getting stronger. Outside it started raining. 

            After Ito left, everybody felt the tension in the gym increase. The eight who seemed to have special 'insight' fidgeted uncomfortably. Mitsui looked at his watch.

            'Yare, yare. It is only 8:09,' he said softly. Sendo turned to look at Mitsui so suddenly and violently that the other 7 jumped a little. 

            'Only 8:10? Then why is the school so deserted? So quiet?' he asked, not directing his question to anyone in particular. The other 7 looked increasingly worried. Silence, like a veil, fell over the whole of Shoyo High School. Even Sakuragi felt tensed. The stars seemed so cold to him, so cruel. Outside, a mouse scampered away from Shoyo, under the merciless rain, as if scared… terrified of the very school.

            About 4 minutes passed in that silence which was only broken by shifting of feet and sounds of all of them breathing. Everyone seemed very edgy, nervous. They all seemed to be waiting for something. Suddenly Rukawa, Sendo, Fujima and Jin stood up. 

            'Coming,' Rukawa said softly.

            'What was that? A warning? What was coming?' Kogure asked himself, frustrated and yet, scared like hell. He wanted to ask, but didn't dare break the atmosphere, (um… that's not exactly right) which seemed so vulnerable. However, his questions were answered without him asking. Answered by a scream, a shout and footsteps. Yet there was something wrong, A LOT of things wrong. 

The scream… it contained no feelings. It was just a scream of pain, drowned by the howling wind and lasing of rain on the window panes. It was as if the person had lost his mind and control. The shout, on the other hand, held no pain. It was a shout of shock… surprise, and terror, pure fear. The scream and shout gave Kogure goose bumps. He could see others breaking into cold sweat. 

And then, there were the footsteps. It was light, fast and scattered, as if the runner was not running in proper rhythm. The runner was chased, Kogure was sure of it. He could see others were sure of it too. The runner was terrified, that was obvious. The only problem was, that sound was only the sound of one person running. If the person was chased, _why weren't there any sounds of the chaser?_

* * * * * * * * 

Hanagata saw that everyone was panicking. He could sense that there was something wrong with the scream, shout and footsteps, but the feeling was covered by a much stronger one. The evil feeling reared itself, trying to make fright take control of his whole body. Beside him, Rukawa, Sendo, Jin and Fujima covered their ears, and he knew that the voices in their head were also getting out of control. He turned to Maki, Mitsui and Koshino and saw clearly that they felt the presence increase tremendously. It was definitely causing them a lot of fright, considering the look of fear their faces held. 

'People,' Hanagata said, directing his words to the other 7 people in particular,

'We've got to take control before everyone loses it!' Hanagata shouted to them, as if they were in the market, and were miles away from each other. There was no need to shout, he knew it.  He shouted because that helped decreased the pressure he was feeling. 

The others (as in Akagi etc.) looked at him, really nervous now.

Mitsui, Jin and Fujima nodded. Rukawa and Sendo, who seemed to be a little more sensitive towards the telepathic power of the enemy, winced a little.

'Kiyota is coming in. Open up!' Rukawa almost screamed at Sakuragi. Sakuragi, who was already so nervous, jumped about a foot into the air. He didn't even snap back a reply, just ran to the door and opened it. Everybody else could only stared at Rukawa, obviously shocked. It was a miracle that Rukawa would actually, 'nearly' scream. Then Hanagata ran out of the door (I know it's a pretty stupid thing to do!) causing a few guys to gasp. All of them turned their attention from Rukawa to Hanagata,

* * * * * * * * 

Hanagata ran out the open door hearing gasp and feeling eyes watching his receding back, but he couldn't be bothered about that. He could feel the presence increasing, what the hell! He could almost see the exact place where it was. Kiyota was faster; thank God for that; than the thing, but not fast enough. He reached Kiyota and pulled him, forcing him to hurry.

In the gym, Koshino shouted to Uozumi and Akagi

'Sempai Uozumi, Akagi, stand guard at the door. When Hanagata comes in, slam it shut.' 

Sendo, on the other hand, had his eyes closed and hands over his ears, as if concentrating. 

'Now!' he said, a fraction second before Hanagata came running in with Kiyota. The door slammed shut.

*Boom!* The thing chasing them slam itself on the door, hard. Ayako screamed. The rest, including Sakuragi, were visibly afraid. The wind continued howling, and the rain didn't stop. 

Mitsui looked at his watch again. 8:16.

Outside the gym, an evil cackle could be heard.       

A/N: As I stated above, I know that I most probably have some mistakes, maybe a lot, but pls bear with me, I'm still an amateur *grins*. I also really appreciate your reiviews, and don't hesitate to REVIEW, thanks.  


	4. Playing Around

**Title: Terror…**

A/N: Yikes!!! Sorry about the Author's Note in the middle in the fic. It was an accident!!! I had absently put it in, forgetting totally about what my reviewer had said. As for the shout which contained no feelings, it totally didn't strike me at that time that pain was a feeling. Something must have been wrong with me (but it's kinda funny now I realized it. How could I forget pain was a feeling?) BTW, would emotions have been better? And as for the grammatical errors, I'm really sorry, but I usually just skim through my fic before posting it up, so I might miss all my grammatical errors. I'm really sorry, and I really thank all of you for your reviews. 

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Alexia: Ei? Sendoh? I thought it was Sendo! By the way thanks!!

sLL: Improved in a short time? Are you comparing this fic with my last? Well it isn't such a short time, because I actually wrote my first fic about three months before PMR, and at that time, my internet wasn't working at that time. Is four five months a short time in your perspective? Thanks for the compliment anyway. Thanks a lot for the reviews.  ****

**Chapter 3- Playing Around**

            'What happened?'

            'What on Earth was that?'

            'Where's Ito?' Questions after questions were showered onto Kiyota, who was so… pale.

            'Shut up! Can't you see that he's scared? He's not in the right state to answer your questions!' Maki snapped at them. Then, turning to Kiyota, but directing his question to Jin, he asked,

            'Can you look into his mind?' Jin frowned a little.

            'Well, I could try,' he replied, not really sure of himself. Yet, before he could attempt a try,

            'Ito's dead,' Rukawa muttered softly.

            'NANI? Oi, Kiyota! How'd he die?' Takano asked him, his voice rising despite his fear. Ito couldn't die! No! He is only sixteen! SIXTEEN!

            'How on Earth am I supposed to know?' Kiyota snapped back at him, and Fujima saw that he was only an inch away from insanity. If Hanagata hadn't gone out at that time, and Kiyota saw IT, he would definitely have crossed over, cross the brink separating sanity and insanity. 

            'What crap? You were there!' Nagano said.

            'I was too busy running, trying to save my back to stay around to watch someone being murdered!' Kiyota snapped back. 

            'If you had helped him, he might not have died!' Hasegawa replied. 

            'He was as good as dead before I left him,' Kiyota said his tone going much softer, his voice drowned by the sounds of the raindrops.

            'How'd you know?' Nagano raised his voice, as if picking a fight, which was the last thing on his mind at that time. He was just scared, his head churning with all kinds of possibilities, each as unlikely as the next. Kiyota looked up, eyes flashing, wrongly interpreting Nagano's tone of voice. But before he could answer,  

            'Stop it! We can't lose it and fight each other, not now. Don't you see? That is exactly what it wants us to do. We can't lose to it. Kiyota didn't see anything, he just felt it,' Sendo replied, trying to break up the tension.

            'How on Earth would you know? And what the hell is IT?' Takano asked, irritated for reasons unknown to even himself.

            'I know, because I can hear it. We all could, remember?' Sendo asked in a soft tone, trying to swallow his anger which threatened to spill out, at the same time, pointing at Rukawa, Fujima and Jin.

            'IT, is the thing that nearly killed Kiyota,' he continued. The three of them didn't look pleased at Sendo's answer. They were going to counter his point when Maki cut in,

            'Look, some of you might not be able to feel what we feel, nor hear what we hear, but then, there might come a time when you can. At that time, you must realize that It is either very near, or is feeling particularly murderous. In other words, it wants to kill someone badly. Do not ignore that feeling! Be on your guard if that eerie feeling rises in you.'

            'Ito…' Fujima muttered softly, tears flowing down his face. There was a pause, where only the sounds of raindrops and the occasional cracking of thunder could be heard. Never had rain been so detested by Fujima. He felt that IT was causing the rain, and he hated the rain because of that.

            'Darn you!' he screamed in his heart.

            'Can someone explain what's going on in here?' Uekusa asked, breaking that silence. Rukawa, who had been absently holding his breath during that short period of silence, let it all out in a go. He too had a bad feeling about the rain.

            'Baka! If we actually knew, we wouldn't be trapped in here so confused,' Takasago said.

            'I wasn't asking you! I was…' Uekusa's reply was cut off by Hanagata.

            'Hey! This is not a time of quarrel! We've to stick together. If even our relationship is broken, that thing will break through us. Don't you people get it?' Hanagata asked them sternly, and yet it was he who wanted to fight. He wanted to shout and break free of all the illogical thought circling his head. 

            Suddenly, some liquid, red liquid slipped through the hole beneath the door. BLOOD.

            Ayako screamed again, shrill and wavering.

            'ITOOOO!!!!!' a Shoyo second-year screamed, running for the door.

            'NO!' Hanagata and Fujima shouted, while Koshino and Mitsui tried to hold onto him.

            'Don't you care? Ito's out there, lying somewhere hurt and suffering! DON'T YOU CARE?' he asked sounding very hysterical. Rukawa, who was looking around, feeling, sensing that the enemy was using Ito's blood as a secondary thing to catch their attention, make them lose concentration, turned, a little startled at the hysterical voice.

            'It's fooling around with us,' his voice broke through the hysterical scream, causing silence in the gym.

            'Yeah. It's having fun seeing us scared, hysterical…' Jin continued.

            'It wants us to. It wants us to run, screaming, out of the gym. Run right into its open hands,' Sendo said, feeling unnerved at the sound of his own voice cutting through the stillness in the gym. He too felt that the enemy was just using Ito's blood to pull their concentration away, so he was on his guard. 

            'Ito's dead. Going out there won't help him at all. Don't you get it? It wants us to fight against each other; it wants us to lose our minds. It murdered Ito. Losing our heads and running out there blindly isn't going to help Ito. DO. YOU. GET. IT?' Fujima asked, making his last question sound more like a command. 

The second-year closed his eyes and took deep breaths trying to calm himself down. After a while he nodded. Mitsui and Koshino let him go slowly, carefully. 

            Five minutes passed, and everyone seemed a little calmer. Everyone except Rukawa and Sendo. They were still waiting. 

Then Hanagata said,

            'We have to fight it no matter what…'

            '_Fight me? Do you think you can do that?' All of them jerked, surprised, and Rukawa could see the growing panic in everyone's eyes. They couldn't lose control now. Not now!_

            'Who're you? What do you want?' Rukawa asked, not really wanting to know the answer. Unease slipped cloudily over his face as he tensed himself, waiting for the answer and anything that might happen. 

            '_I don't think you want to know,' it answered. Its answer was followed by a soft malevolent giggle. Its voice was very soft, peaceful almost, but Rukawa felt a fresh chill course through him._

            'What if we want to?' Sendo asked.

            'What if we already know?' Jin asked.

            'What would you do if we know?' Fujima asked, following up the conversation and technique Sendo was using. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw a small smile flit across Rukawa's lips.

            'What if we're the one who's playing around with you?' Rukawa continued. There was a pause in which the silence so… deep that it could be felt. Rukawa felt goose bumps rising again.

            *Sounds of breathing getting faster and louder* 

It was so sudden that everyone turned towards… Uekusa. He was sweating, trembling and breathing in hitches. Rukawa realized that he had almost lost the concentration he had just now. The concentration in waiting for something to happen.

            'Uekusa, calm down,' Sendo said, cursing himself one second later for saying such a stupid thing. Uekusa's breathing only became more ragged and loud. 

            'No, Uekusa. N-O!' Jin said, his voice rising.

            In the dim glow of the moon, Uekusa's face looked ravaged and hag-like. Fujima realized that they were too late, wild panic was already ripping away Uekusa's self-control. 

            'It got him,' Jin muttered. 

* * * * * * * * 

            'Come to me. Come to me. COME TO ME!'

            Uekusa couldn't help it. He couldn't fight it, not alone. He tried to voice out his helplessness, but couldn't. For the first time, fear, real fear, stole into him. Everything around him was going foggy. He couldn't see anything. He couldn't hear anything either, except for the malicious "come to me" 

Then, he felt a pull, a pull coming from outside the room. Almost unconsciously, he headed towards it. 

* * * * * * * * 

            'No! Close the door. Slam it shut!' Fujima shouted at all of them, while Sendo, Rukawa and Jin tried to talk Uekusa out of his state. They knew almost exactly what was going on in his mind. They also knew that it was almost impossible to talk him out of such a state, but then again, it didn't hurt to try.

            'But the thing is in the third-year building. How could it control Uekusa from there?' Hanagata asked aloud.

'Mind power,' Fujima muttered back, running towards Uekusa. Maki, Koshino and Mitsui were busy making sure that all the doors were shut. 

* * * * * * * * 

After some time, Rukawa gave up trying to talk him out. Instead, he focused his mind and forced his way into Uekusa's mind, trying to break its contact with the THING'S mind, but he hit a dead circuit. The thing was too strong. He strained himself, feeling sweat pour out from his pores, but still, he failed.

            'Rukawa…' Sendo stared hard at boy beside him, and realized what he was doing. After a while, Sendo also realized that he was losing.

            'Rukawa…'

            Then, he felt it. Another power was helping him. Sendo. They blended together in perfect harmony and pushed against the barrier.

            It weakened, bent under their pressure. Rukawa felt, sensed shock and surprise. It hadn't expected them to be so strong, so powerful. Just before the barrier broke, it retreated, admitting defeat. 

            Fujima and Jin watched Rukawa and Sendo breathlessly. They weren't helping Sendo and Rukawa because they were standing by, acting as backup just in case anything might happen to Sendo, Rukawa and Uekusa. If it came to that, at least they might be able to help pull Sendo's and Rukawa's minds back. Rukawa relaxed a little when Sendo helped him. All around them, everyone was waiting, obviously worried and scared to death. The only sounds were of the wind, blowing softly, and of course, the rain. 

            After minutes which seemed like eternity, Sendo smiled and opened his eyes. Rukawa, who had been unconsciously holding his breath, let it out, eyes still closed. Fujima realized that Uekusa too was now breathing in a normal pace.

* * * * * * * * 

            'It's gone! It's gone!' Uekusa told himself. His breathing slowed, and he opened his eyes which had been closed, although he could not recall doing so. He felt cold, and very nervous. 

* * * * * * * * 

Jin looked over to Uekusa, and realized that if Sendo and Rukawa had been even ten seconds late, he'd be long gone, broken and out of his mind. Then, he felt… heard it.

'_There's your answer, m'dear,'_ Jin shivered, and looked over to Rukawa, Sendo and Fujima. They too had heard it.

* * * * * * * * 

There was silence in the gym again, but this time, Hanagata sensed no doubt in it.

A/N: I really thank all of you for all your reviews. It means a lot to me. And, please continue reviewing!! (giggles)  And do please excuse all my mistakes. 


	5. Next Victim

**Title: Terror…**

A/N: Er… this chapter is edited, so not all of the nice parts are mine. Well, thanks a lot to all who reviewed, and of course thanks a lot to my beta-reader. Well, hope you like this.

sLL":*shudders* Are you serious? Don't scare me! English workbooks after PMR? You must be joking. Actually, I don't think I deserve such high praises. Well, thanks anyway.

Devoted2Mitsui: Err… you have a computer in the basement? Thanks anyway.

Shirodachi: Just questioning, do you, did you read Phantom by Dean Koonzt?

Eliar Swiftfire: No! This isn't the end!

**Chapter 4- Next Victim  **

            'Uekusa, daijoubu ka?' Fujima asked. He nodded.

            'Arigatou,' he said to Sendo and Rukawa. Sendo smiled a little and nodded, trying to hide his fear. Rukawa, on the other hand, merely nodded without even looking at him.

            'It can't get us. Not in here,' he said, softly yet clearly. Rain continued tearing against the gym.

            'Nani?' Hasegawa asked. In reply, the four of them looked at Hanagata, Koshino, Maki, and Mitsui. 

'So… Rukawa is the ear, while Mitsui is the brain.' Akagi whispered. He was staring at them, and he realized that they always looked to Hanagata, Koshino, Maki and Mitsui when they needed answers. Rukawa, Sendo, Fujima and Jin were always the one listening, fighting.

Kogure's head whipped towards the captain's direction, startled.

The rain continued to flail against them. Seconds ticked by.

'We've got something in common. Something that binds us together,' Hanagata's steady voice broke through the silence once more.

'Yeah… something it wants,' Koshino added.  

'And yet, something it cannot get if we use that as a common bond to hold us all together,' Maki said. 

'Basketball.' The four of them, the 'brains' as Akagi labeled them, concluded, nodding together. 

'As long as we stay in this gym, it cannot break the seal that holds us together,' Mitsui said. 

'And that's what we have to do, stay in here, at least until morning.'

* * * * * * * * 

I was so angry, I couldn't think properly, couldn't think straight.

_Who do you think you are?!_

_Who are you?!_

_Why are you so strong?!_

I saw the ravaged body of my newest victim, but did not feel hunger instantly. Those two, their insolence, trying to trick me. Foolishness.

But besides that I also felt confusion rising. It was a new feeling, a sick feeling.

_I am the one!_

_I am the one who's supposed to win against you!_

_I am the one who will__ win against all of you!_

I cursed them, loathed them, in the deepest parts of my existence. They will never succeed. Though they had rescued one, it was not the end. Certainly not the end.

_You thought you won already…but I can see that all of you are scared. _

_Scared of death. Scared to death. And realizing their fear, I started feeling elated._

I had killed two out of three - I was still winning. My spirits arose, and I began to feast on my newest victim, hungrily, delightfully.

_I will get what I want._

_And send all of you to your deaths._

_Hell awaits._

* * * * * * * * 

            'Nani? Stay here until morning? Don't we need to bathe? What about school?' Sakuragi asked, stunned at Mitsui's suggestion. 

            'What do want to do in school anyway? You don't have enough brains to be in class,' Ryota snapped at him.

            'Urusei! Stop it. We can't quarrel now, okay? We'll leave as soon as there's little light, that will leave us some time to bathe,' Mitsui said to his teammates. Rukawa resisted the strong urge to provoke Sakuragi with his 'do'aho.'

            'This is ridiculous! What can do such a thing? I mean… . You're telling me that we can't fight it with power, but we can protect ourselves with a bond? With basketball? For goodness sakes! That is crap!' Takasago commented, angrily. Maki sighed.

            'Look, can you all open your minds a little? Right now, we're battling with something inhuman. You can't fight it with logic! You can't even try! Don't you see?' Koshino said. 

* * * * * * * * 

I was delirious.

_I won._

_They can't see how powerful I am against them._

I cackled, evilly. 

_Oh, my poor  unimaginative basketball players. _

_Come to me. COME! _

_And feel my wrath. I was filled with malice. There was no place for confusion, not anymore._

* * * * * * * * 

            'Can't fight it with logic? How old does he think we are? Imaginations won't bring us anywhere,' Shiozaki said to himself. Looking around he realized that though everyone didn't want to believe it, _couldn't believe it, some of them already did.  _

            'We're high school students, not elementary school kids!' he wanted to shout to those who believed.

            Suddenly…

* * * * * * * * 

            ***Bam!*** The gym door was slid open with such force, reverberating loud enough to be heard over the rain when it reached the end. 

Everyone jumped. Someone shrieked.

It was enough to send fear knotting in their chest. With their heartbeat quickening, they turned.

* * * * * * * * 

Then he felt it! There was a kind of presence… it felt distinctly evil, and yet, its call was captivating. It called out in a pidgin, pathetic voice. A morbid fascination slowly formed in Shiozaki. Who was calling him? He seemed to remember a warning about not listening to it, but the voice was strong. The voice wanted him. Quietly, Shiozaki walked towards the door, hoping that he didn't attract anyone's attention. ' 

I'm coming.' He sent the thought out to whoever it was.

'Don't worry, I'm coming.' This time it came out in a whisper. When he reached the door, he yanked it open.

In the blink of an eye, Shiozaki disappeared.

Running.

He could feel someone pulling at him, running. 

But then, it's not exactly running,' Shiozaki managed to tell himself even though his brain was already numb with fear and shock. He heard the door slam. It sounded very far away. 

* * * * * * * *

'SHIT!' The thought echoed in Rukawa's mind. Trying to quell the primal fear that was beginning to rise in him, he turned his fearful eyes towards the door. Where the strong doors were once closed, was now the darkness outside, and the silvery sheet of rain that was lighted up by the moonlight. It was a peaceful sight, pretty almost, but he knew it was false. A trick. 

Rukawa felt his stomach clench at the very sight of the rain.  

* * * * * * * *

Sendo heaved, his hands trembling.

'Something's happened.' They were all staring at the open door. There was nothing there, only a vast darkness that seemed to stretch for miles. Shoyo's gym faced the field, so there was nothing to see, except the stars and moon. It was still raining, and in the dim light that the gym cast out into the night, he saw that the sidewalk was wet.

He gasped.

Could it be…!? 

His eyes swept over to Rukawa, and Sendo's fears came true. The rookie was staring, not at the open doors, but at everyone in the gym. Rukawa's eyes were moving quickly…searching. Yeah,  he wasn't staring, he was searching.

With a pounding heart, he too started looking, looking for the missing someone. 

* * * * * * * *

Suddenly Yasuda felt the urge to say something, anything to his closest friend. He just wanted to make sure that the Shiozaki beside him was real. For unknown reasons he felt alone.

But even as he turned, he felt sorrow, and he saw that he couldn't find him. For some strange, twisted reason, he couldn't find Shiozaki. He wasn't in his original place, beside him. 

'Shiozaki,' Rukawa was saying quietly. Everyone turned towards him, including Yasuda. 

'It took Shiozaki,' he continued. 

As if in confirmation, the screams, Shiozaki's screams could be heard. The bloodcurdling screams sent fear rippling all over them. Ayako sobbed. As if something had snapped in his mind, Yasuda let out his own cry of pain and grief, mingling with the screams coming from outside. The fading screams.

'NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! SHIOZAKI, YOU CAN'T DO THIS!!! COME BACK!!! COME BACK!!!'

Mitsui went over to the Shohoku player, trying to calm him down, but his own tears gave him away. 

'We were too careless…' Sendo said regretfully. 

* * * * * * * * 

            He could faintly hear Yasuda calling for him. Shiozaki squirmed. Whoever, whatever was gripping him was strong, and powerful. And it could run very fast.

'How can we move so fast? This thing doesn't even have legs!' his brain tried to yell. Now that the initial shock was wearing out, he felt terror, cold terror seeping into him. 

Someone else was screaming, but he knew it wasn't his friend. The screams were coming from somewhere nearer. They were moving very fast, nearing the third-year's building.

            'How can we move so fast? This thing doesn't even have legs!' his heart screamed out.

            When they reached the third-year's building, the thing threw him, face down, on the floor. Shiozaki swallowed against a scream of pain which threatened to come out. He felt blood pouring out of his nose.  

            Shiozaki turned onto his back so that he was now facing it. And for the first and last time, Shiozaki saw IT. Saw it in its menacing, malign form, and what he saw then destroyed his sanity in one clawing stroke. But just before he became insane, he realized who was the other one screaming. Himself.

* * * * * * * *

Koshino, swallowing hard, closed the door. It took a lot of courage to do it. 

'It couldn't get in, so how?' He mumbled to himself. He knew, felt that the thing can't come in, that was why they hadn't locked the door, but… how did he get it? Shiozaki… did he deny the fact…? Was that why it got him? Without answering his own questions, he walked to where the other six was, a corner of the gym. 

A flash of lightning lighted up the dim part of the gym where they stood, and Hanagata saw that all of them were straining themselves. They were trying not to burst into hysterics the way Yasuda did.

            'It took one from every school, or at least tried to,' Hanagata said to the six people around him.  Mitsui was still trying his best to calm Yasuda, even though he himself was close to the border. The thunder that followed didn't drown out the Yasuda's cries, and Hanagata felt… sick. He wanted to feel sorry, sorry for Yasuda, as he would have felt in normal circumstances. But what the heck? This isn't a normal situation, and he felt sorry, terribly sorry for Shiozaki instead. He was sure that somewhere in his school, Shiozaki was being murdered with deliberate slowness, the murderer savoring on the fear he was causing Shiozaki. 

            All around him, the seven of them showed no signs at all that they were agreeing with him, but he knew it. He felt it. They all did. A pause, where only Yasuda's cries and… the rain could be heard.

            'But then…why is it so fast? How did Hanagata-sempai and Kiyota managed outrun it when we couldn't even see its shadow before the door which was yanked so hard manage to reach its end?' Rukawa asked. All of them turned towards him, pondering on that question which had not crossed their minds. 

And far away in Rukawa, Sendo, Fujima and Jin's head, they heard Shiozaki's last scream. The scream before he met his destiny… death.   

A/N: Again, I wish to thank all the reviewers. And just for your info, this is NOT a SenRu fic, if anyone gets that idea. Oh, and if I were to end this fic, I'll write something like completed. Really, thank you!!! See ya. Ya, one more, as I've stated before, I'm not really sure where this fic might go. I'm actually planning that the plot only lasts one night. Anyone think otherwise? Pls review. And BTW, when there was the *BAM* it was the door slammed OPEN, not close. I'm not really sure if doors in Japan can be slammed open but… well, if that had caused any confusion, I'm sorry.


	6. Uncertainty?

**Title: Terror…**

A/N: Look, this chapter is not edited (technical problem), so I'm sure it's not as nice as the last one. Oh and BTW, I'm really sorry it took me so long to upload this chapter b'coz I was away for a camp

sLL: I watched Dark Waters too. It was quite nice.

Lazuli:*Blush* thanks!

Alexia: Ei? Well I'm not sure, but most probably because, you know, Kainan was the best followed by Shoyo… 

Ayce Shade: Err… what exactly is a demon fodder?

Eliar Swiftfire: No! This isn't the end!

**Chapter 5- Uncertainty?******

            'Yasuda! Please, your crying ain't going to help Shiozaki one bit, okay? Don't you get it? He's beyond our help, and the only thing that would make him happy, if such a feeling is possible where he is, is us getting out of here alive!' Mitsui said, getting a little frustrated. But at least Yasuda was showing signs that he was calming down, and he felt a little better. His efforts weren't in vain.

            'Sempai, is Shiozaki…' Yasuda left his sentence unfinished.

            'You'll have to accept that fact. Can you do it?' Mitsui asked in return.

            'This must be a dream, it has to be. Shiozaki can't be dead…'

            'Yasuda! If this is a dream…' Mitsui pinched him, harder than he was supposed to, but he was losing his patience, so he couldn't care less.

            'Then wake UP! This is not a dream, no matter how all of us wish it is. So stop it.' There was a moment of pause where Yasuda rubbed the place where Mitsui pinched him, looking totally scared. Then, in a softer tone, Mitsui continued,

            'Look, I may not know how you're feeling, okay, I admit that, but you don't know how we feel either. I mean like… man… I would give anything to be one of you, no responsibility and all. But we can't choose to be who we are. It's not by chance that it took Shiozaki and not you, you may be important later, so… please don't make it any harder on all of us… the eight of us,' he continued. Yasuda stared at him, and then looked at the other seven who were standing, looking very, very sad and unhappy. He felt a little guilty looking at them, he was too selfish. Sighing, he nodded, still sniveling. Such a thought had not crossed his mind. 

After making sure that Yasuda wouldn't break into hysteric wailings again, he asked Ryota to watch over Yasuda while he joined up with the other seven at the corner of the gym. More flashes of lighting and clashes of thunder. Mitsui shuddered involuntarily. 

            'What's going to happen now?' he asked himself, jogging towards them. The first greeting he received was a question.

            'How's Yasuda?' Fujima asked. Mitsui nodded.

            'Fine, well better than before at least.' At the same time, he sighed, inwardly. Responsibility, he never liked it. 

            'Well, as we were saying, the next victim should be from Kainan,' Hanagata said. He was about to continue when Koshino, deep in thought, cut in, not even aware that he was interrupting Hanagata.

              'Um… sempai Mitsui, Rukawa, do you think that Shiozaki actually believed what we said just now?'

            'Ei?... you mean about using our imaginations and all that crap? Well, I wouldn't know, but… if you ask me for a speculation, I think… no… yeah, no, he wouldn't,' Mitsui said. There was a pause. Then Jin asked the question which had been circling in their minds.

            'Why? I mean… it won't actually make a difference, now would it?' 

'Well… you see, I know very well that Uekusa wouldn't believe in this kind of stuff, you know, imaginations. He's the more practical one, one who would work with facts. As for Ito, he practically proclaimed to the whole world that he didn't believe in such a thing… _do you see where I'm going?' Koshino replied, ending it with a question._

'Um… yeah, well at least I see two possibilities. Either it is angry that we won't acknowledge its presence and reality, or you could be suggesting that it feeds on the uncertainty of the mind,' Maki answered. Everyone around them was whispering to each other, making him more nervous.

'I think the second one would be a better possibility. Most of them could not believe that such a thing could happen. _Yet, it happened. They were torn between practicality and the fact that it was happening right in front of their eyes. Naturally, they'd be shock, confused.' Hanagata said, explaining, not only to those who didn't really understand, but maybe, just maybe, to himself as well.   _

'Okay, thought acknowledged and fact accepted. But then, there is one flaw, why couldn't it get Uekusa?' Mitsui asked. The eight of them went quiet, thinking. At least the four, Hanagata, Koshino, Mitsui and Maki were thinking. The others, they were watching, observing and listening, wondering what was going to happen next, and who was the next victim. They all, especially Rukawa felt uncomfortable, vulnerable. For some reasons unknown to himself, he kept casting worried glances at Jin. 

The rain seemed to be thinning. 

'Is that a good sign?… or a bad?"' Rukawa asked himself. Then, Hanagata cut his thought short.

'I can only come up with these two most probable reason, which may not be true,' Hanagata warned. The rest nodded, a little impatiently. They didn't know how much time they had left, before it came back for its next victim. Sendo felt eerily vulnerable. 

A feeling he had not felt. Not even in this gym where his friends were being murdered, no. He too noticed that the rain was thinning, but… 

'First of all, Rukawa and Sendo were on your guard, weren't you?' he questioned. Sendo and Rukawa nodded mutely. 

'So, you see, they already… waiting. They were not caught by surprise, which gave us more time to actually think and them to act. Secondly, maybe Uekusa didn't believe, but that didn't mean he closed out all the possibilities.' 

Koshino stared at Hanagata, his brain trying to sink in everything he had said.

'He might have not have closed out all the possibilities,' Koshino reiterated. Hanagata nodded. 

'Yeah, maybe, just maybe, he was willing to believe, if we could provide enough proof. So, actually, his mind wasn't really… um… uncertain. He was open to any possibility,' Hanagata continued, looking at each one of them, especially Koshino, for this was actually his idea. Hanagata was merely elaborating the idea Koshino had laid out. And, probably, because Koshino was quite a good friend of Uekusa. Probably he was looking for some kind of affirmation. 

'Proof! Man, that's it. Uekusa works with proof. He's a Science man… open, but not to imagination! Open to possibilities. Jeez, that was it,' Koshino muttered. Uekusa always wanted prove, how could he have overlooked it? 

'Yeah, Ito felt something, I could see it. See it in his eyes,' Sendo murmured. 

'Yeah, Ito felt it, but knowing him, I know that he wouldn't have accepted such an illogical fact. He wouldn't want to. You see that's two main differences between them. One didn't believe, and wasn't ready to accept, the other, didn't believe, but was ready to accept,' Hanagata concluded. Another flash of lighting, and a loud clash of thunder. Then, so many things were heard together that Rukawa's mind went blank for a while.

First, he heard Hanagata saying something about not having proof.

Second, he heard Ayako screaming.

And third… 

'Help! Help! Maki, Jin, Kiyota, Takasago! HELPPP!' Rukawa shook his head. Those voices mingled together, causing his ears and head to ache. The thunder and splattering of the rain outside wasn't helping either. He didn't seem to realize… acknowledge the tensed atmosphere in the gym.

Sendo, on the other hand, who was not as blur as Rukawa, knew perfectly what was going on. He could sense how scared everyone was. He was no exception. He was terrified, almost petrified. This particular voice was worse, far worse, in a way, compared to the voice he heard in his brain, mind. It was… Mutoh's voice, and he could see that particular fact registering itself in the brains of the basketball players in the gym, causing them… terror.

'Mutoh?' Jin said softly. Rukawa, who finally got his brain cleared, blinked a little, and looked around. He could feel the uncertainty in everyone's mind. The indecisiveness. He had that feeling, that sense again. The feeling… 

His eyes met Sendo's, and confirmed the possibility. The possibility that again, it was using this as a trick.

'As blur as that guy is, he's sharp as well,' Sendo muttered to himself.

'Jin-san? Come on, someone, help me!'

'Mutoh… Mutoh…' Jin muttered again and again, the shock nearly making him lose his mind.

'Jin… Help! HELP!'

Rukawa snaked his hand out, catching Jin's, holding him back, while Sendo stood behind Maki, eyeing him uncertainly.     

'They want to destroy us first. If we're gone…' Hanagata muttered, observing the fact that although everyone was scared to death, not one of them was affected the way Jin and Maki were… especially Jin. It was scary to see the way Jin was reacting to Mutoh's voice.

Koshino nodded.

'If we're gone, things would be much easier on it.' 

The voice was still calling out in a pathetic voice. That was the only flaw of the voice. Mutoh never used a pathetic voice in his whole life, even if he was desperate. But Jin didn't seem to notice that.

'Maki-san… please,' Mutoh's voice called out. 

And directly after that, to Mitsui's surprise, Sendo left Maki's side.

'It wants Jin,' he muttered, loud enough for them to hear. Yet, what he said did not register itself in Jin's brain. He was too consumed with the voice… and the though of Mutoh.

'Demo… Sendo,' Mitsui said. Hanagata stopped him.

'They know what they are doing. Don't worry.'

'Sempai Hanagata. Just keep an eye on Maki,' Rukawa said, his normally unemotional voice was tinted with… panic. Hanagata nodded, while Fujima ran over to help him.

'Sempai Fujima, Sendo, both if you do it this time,' Rukawa said to them. Flashes of lightning decorated the night sky. The thunder that followed left Rukawa feeling very… angry. He felt again that it was the cause of the rain. The rain was its… emotion…    

            Fujima and Sendo nodded, and tried to enter into Jin's mind. But this was a little harder than in Uekusa's situation. Jin had his own mind power, and it was not actually letting them enter. It didn't allow them to do what they wanted in Jin's mind. Sendo was worried. If, if its power was strong enough, it could use Jin's power, Jin's mind power against them all.

* * * * * * * * 

            'Mutoh. That's Mutoh! He's not dead. Aren't you going to help him?' a voice told Jin, mocking him for not being able to help the last time. He tried to walk towards Mutoh's voice which seemed to come from… everywhere. He was absently aware that his mind was in a whirl, and that someone was holding him back.

            'That's not important. The important thing is Mutoh's alive, and in danger. You have to help him!' the voice told him again.

            'Mutoh's dead! That's just a fake, a gimmick,' another voice woke in the back of his head, but… that voice was not as strong. It wasn't as strong as the first voice. The mocking voice. But then, it was followed by two other vague voices.

            'Yes! That's right. It's all gimmick. Come back, Jin. Get into control again.'

            'Jin? Come on, you can't help Mutoh by giving in. Fight it!' yet, even the combination of the three voices was not as strong as the first voice.

            'Don't talk crap! Don't listen to those voices. Help Mutoh!' The same voice. The persuading, mocking voice. He was so confused. So utterly helpless. Suddenly…

* * * * * * * * 

            *Pap*. Rukawa slapped Jin, hard. Jin's hand flew to his face, his blank eyes clearing a little.

            'Rukawa…' Maki said softly. 

            'Hey! Come back! What do you think you are doing? How can you just give in? You're supposed to be helping us. Leading them! How can you give in to that thing? Do'aho!' Rukawa said. Sendo noticed that his voice this time did not contain fear, but… pain? He also noticed that unlike his voice, Rukawa's face was still unemotional. At least on the outside. Sendo wondered… was Rukawa hiding anything?

* * * * * * * * 

            Frustration drove dots in front of my eyes. 

_I'll get you._

_I'll win in the end._

            And yet, I could feel the fear trying to take over my frustration. No matter how itried to avoid it, it was still there.

_What if they win??_

_It doesn't matter, I'll be careful…_

_They won't win if I'm careful._

            A mental picture of Rukawa flashed into my mind. My anger returned.

_The possibility of you winning may not be that remote anymore, but I'll get you._

_I'm immortal._

_Mortal man like you will never triumph over me.     _

_Rukawa and Hanagata.___

_You'll be the first._

            My anger intensified. The rain, which was thinning at my concentration, suddenly lashed down, harder than before. 

_I know you're tensing up, Rukawa._

_I'm omniscient._

_Remember._

* * * * * * * * 

            'Jin, daijoubu ka?' Fujima asked. A very bewildered Jin stared at him

            'Give me a minute,' he answered, feeling quite shaken. Sendo smiled, nervously. Rukawa let out a sigh, as if he had just completed a tedious task. Sendo chanced a glance at him. Just looking at him made Sendo feel that… he was in a way, alone, at least for now. Outside, it was still raining, and the moon shone down, somehow, seeming more cold and hostile than warm. 

A/N: I'm really sorry if there were any mistakes. And oh… please, review. Thanks for all your support.


	7. Oneechan

**Title: Terror…**

A/N: Ahem… thanks for all the reviews, and here's chapter six for you!!!!!

sLL: er… Sakuragi? *slaps herself* totally forgot about him.

Lazuli: Nah! I'll never let Rukawa die, well at least for now.

Eliar Swiftfire: Thanks!

Simply Kim: *grins evilly* you like Shiozaki? Or are you just sad that It killed someone.

**Chapter 6- Onee-chan**

Err… thanks," Jin muttered softly, aware that everyone, every single person in the gym was staring at him. Sendo too was looking at Jin. But then, after a while, he looked away, feeling uncomfortable. He realized that everyone was staring at Kainan's shooting ace. He didn't like it… For some reason or another, he felt uncomfortable. It was unexplainable, but the feeling was there. Trying to avert all their attention away from Jin, he asked, 

'Rukawa, what made you do that?' Rukawa looked away, shoving his hands in his pocket, and remained silent. Sendo was thinking of ways to rephrase the question. now, not to divert everyone's attention, not anymore. He felt that he needed to know. He must know why Rukawa actually hit Jin. As Sendo was still thinking, Rukawa answered, eyes at the window. 

'I dunno… I thought a sharp shock would do it, and it did.' 

Silence again. 

Koshino looked at Rukawa hard, as if waiting for more. He just felt that there was more that Rukawa had to say. The young man who was expected to be silent as a rock was extremely needed in their situation. After a moment, Rukawa did mutter another reply. His voice was dropping, as if he was saying it against his will.

'His eyes were blank, scary… like that of…' Rukawa actually swallowed before his voice turned into a mere whisper,  

'… onee-chan.' 

Even though his voice was soft, Sendo heard it, and he felt… both of them sensed something different. Something out of place in the gym. Something that didn't belong, contaminating the atmosphere. 

Rain trashed against the gym.

Sendo shivered. 

* * * * * * * * 

I found something. There was something in that boy, Rukawa's mind. But…

_Do you feel it? _

_Do you feel me… Sendo? Rukawa?   
It doesn't matter, just a little more.   
Just a little more, and I'll have you. _

I was thrilled at what I found. I continued prompting Rukawa's mind softly. 

Absently, long, thin filaments lightly caressed my new victim. Caressed his face. 

_Just a little more._

* * * * * * * *

What did he say? His sister?' Fujima looked at Rukawa, the thought still spinning in his mind. Rukawa looked very different now. He looked scared, sad… and lonely? 

'He has a sister? But… so what? I mean that has nothing to do with Jin. So why did the attack on Jin have such an impact on him?' 

There were so many questions. And yet, there were no answers. None…

But… the fact that Rukawa was different wasn't the only thing bothering them. Fujima sensed that there was something here, in the gym. Something that had no right at all to be here. Something uninvited… and he felt that it was aiming for Rukawa. 

A look at Sendo was enough to confirm that fact.   
  


Everyone stirred uncomfortable in the gym. Kiyota looked around nervously. Everyone had shut up again, after the resounding slap Rukawa had given his teammate. He tried to start a conversation, but his nerves didn't allow it..Most of the Shohoku players, he noticed, were still crying sorrowfully for Shiozaki. That was the thing that was making him more nervous. 

Uekusa stared at Ryota, who was trying to comfort Yasuda although tears were flowing freely from his eyes. He wondered… all around him, most of the Shohoku players were whispering to each other, finding comfort in others' words. Of all the teams, Uekusa realized, Shohoku seemed to be the most traumatized by Shiozaki's lost. Yet, other teams had lost their members too… _Why?_

* * * * * * * * *

 'I won't remember it!' Rukawa told himself sternly. He couldn't fight it, however. There was something protruding from the back of his mind…something prompting him…forcing him to remember.

_'NOOOO!'___

_'Oneesan!'_

Grotesque memories of his sister's death flashed across his mind. He grimaced, the uninvited mind waves that was bothering him just now, forgotten. All around him, there were sounds of broken conversation. The other basketball players were trying to relieve the tension and their fright by talking.

'Do'aho,' he muttered, almost unconsciously, trying to direct his memories away from his sister, but it refused to go. He was now in another realm, a realm that existed only in his memory, his history. That power was too strong to be defeated, now that he had been caught off-guard. The emptiness in Jin's eyes had taken away most of his self-control and… self-defense. He felt… alone, unguarded. 

He saw it again, first the blood, and then his sister. Her blank eyes just staring back at him. Her open mouth, twisted into a silent scream.

 And…last of all, so unimportant at one glance, and yet so prominent…

The cockroaches.

The hundreds… thousands of them, infesting the bathroom. 

'Shit! Stop it!' he screamed to himself, shaking his head a little, not at all aware that he was receiving worried stares from the other seven… no from almost all the players. He concentrated with all his power, and was nearly gaining control. But before he managed to push the thing out, chase the power away, one more, only one thought managed to escape the locked up part of his mind. 

'Even the police couldn't find out the cause of her death.' 

* * * * * * * *  

_What are going to do now?   
I've got you!_

I cackled maliciously.

I felt exhilarated. I found it, his weakness.   
_Now, your mind is uncertain.   
What are you going to do?   
What are all of you going to do?   
Rukawa is going to be mine soon. _

The exhilaration was blossoming in me. I knew what to do. My body cells were changing, rearranging themselves, my body structure reforming 

_You know, Rukawa, it's such a coincidence. _

My exhilaration reached its peak. Absently, I let out another cackle. 

**_I__ killed her. _**

* * * * * * * *

'He's losing it!' Mitsui signaled wildly. Everyone's head swerved.

'Rukawa? No! He can't! He has the strongest mind! If he loses…we would be gone!' Takasago kept muttering. 

'Rukawa, daijoubu ka?' Sendo asked Rukawa cautiously, acutely aware that Rukawa was sweating and shivering slightly. 

Rukawa didn't answer. He just looked towards the door expectantly. He was waiting for something. Expecting something. And yet, he looked…like he wasn't in control. 

Hasegawa looked at Rukawa too, terrified. 

'Another attack? Now? What is going to happen?' The question twisted itself Hasegawa's head. Sendo could feel the tension in the gym increasing.

_Their worried… about Rukawa.___

He was the one fighting most, if he lost it now… that was one possibility they didn't even want to think about.  __

Sendo didn't blame them for worrying. He himself was scared to death.   
The rain continued its steady fall. Lighting flared. 

Sendo shuddered.

The lightning had illuminated the rookie's face - which was one of pure devastation.

'Shit! Oh, who cares!' he thought, and tried to enter Rukawa's mind. Then maybe he could see what was bothering - no, scaring Rukawa. He managed to enter easily. Too easily.

He was surprised to know that Rukawa wasn't mentally guarded. But he was _stunned by the images circling inside Rukawa's mind. _

A girl with long black hair.

Fair skin.

She was lying on her back, in a bathroom, in the bathtub… 

A bathtub which was filled with red liquid…

And black bubbles. 

Sendo gasped loudly. He fought the urge to throw up and pull himself out of there. That picture… was… 

The red liquid was… BLOOD… and the bubbles were… COCKROACHES. 

He had realized that there was something very unusual in there when he first entered, with his mind, into the bathroom. The thing that had made him uneasy when he first saw the whole picture - were the cockroaches on the floor, on the wall. Everywhere in the bathroom. 

There was so many… far from many, there was so much! They were in all kinds of sizes… And now, he realized that the BATHTUB was filled with cockroaches…and blood. 

'What the hell happened in here?' he whispered, feeling the hairs on the nape of his neck rise at the sight and understanding of the whole picture. 

Suddenly, another thought flashed across his mind. 

'Even the police couldn't find out the cause of the death.' 

Sendo shuddered again, feeling that there was something very wrong in Rukawa's past. This had to be Rukawa's past, Rukawa does not have any imagination. And Sendo knew that.  

He also sensed that there was something in Rukawa's mind besides him. 

With all his might, he helped to chase away whatever was forcing the rookie to remember this hideous memory.

* * * * * * * *

The thing. The waves forcing him to remember were now gone. But… there was something he had managed to keep from it… and from Sendo. He couldn't let anyone know that his sister's death was not the only thing that was unsolved.

After less them an hour, all that remained of his sister was her corpse.   
_The cockroaches had been feeding on her. _

* * * * * * * *

I snickered, still feeling thrilled at the result I received.

_So what if you chase me away? You can't run forever._

I walked towards the gym, taking my time. 

_You've kept me out, out of the gym with all your determination, but can you still do that now?   
Rukawa's not going to fight me, can you all do it without him? _

The smile that had been decorating my mouth faded as I neared the gym. 

I was worried, a little, it couldn't be denied. Another new feeling. 

It was true that I could break through Rukawa… but that didn't mean I had broken the others' determination… their teamwork. 

_Well, I'll still win. _

I got Rukawa, and I will get the rest of you, just wait patiently.

_Rukawa, you should be honored, I have broken my usual schedule.   
It should be Shoyo's turn now, another second-year, but it's you. _

The gym door neared, and with it, my belief and self-confidence returned. 

_Bye, Rukawa. _

The smile returned on my face as I threw the door open. 

Threw it open with…Saori Rukawa's hands.  

A/N: Oh, and by the way, Sakuragi might not make his appearance up till chapter 8 because I totally forgot about him, but then, he's still in the gym! And if theirs is still any mistakes, I'm really sorry. 


	8. Some Answers

**Title: Terror…**

A/N: Err… this chapter is preety long, but I just didn't know where to cut it. I'm really sorry. BTW, it's alright to inform me about all my mistakes. Seriously, I don't mind. And… pls forgive me, but Sakuragi won't make his appearance until the next chapter

sLL: I'm not offended at all!!! And I think I get a little of what you are saying. Well, at least I hope I did!! Probably I'm just jealous that I don't have a bathtub, so I'm writing to freak you guys out *bangs her head* err… did I just say that?

Shirodachi: Oh… I thought you weren't going to review anymore *sob* Thanks!! 

Kathleen: Thanks a lott!!!

mental_freak: err… are you serious? My first chapter is short because it's the prologue… but I always thought the other chapters are a bit too long, not to mention this particular chapter!!!

**Chapter 7-Some Answers**

            'Onee-chan?' Rukawa's eyes widened at the sight of the girl standing at the doorway. Kiyota noted at once that the girl was stunningly pretty, with long cascading black hair and beautiful clear blue eyes. She also had a perfect posture, which was rare in girls. 

            In response to Rukawa's one-word question, the girl just smiled.

            Jin was eerily uncomfortable…that smile had a kind of …it left a kind of…  

After a while, Jin gave up trying to discern what he was feeling. Unconsciously, he held his hand out, stopping Rukawa, who was on the verge of running to his sister. Fujima at the other side of Rukawa did the same, also feeling unsettled, and realizing that the other players in the gym were feeling the same way. 

            'That's the same girl,' Sendo whispered. He had just witnessed, in his mind, this exact same girl who was lying in the bathtub filled with blood and cockroaches… And now, here she was standing in front of him, fixing a ghostlike smile at Rukawa. All the basketball players, including Uozumi, Sendo noted, were backing away, terrified, for unexplained reasons of the girl at the door. She, on the other hand, paid no attention to them, her gaze focused on Rukawa only… and yet, Sendo could swear that her eyes had flitted to his direction for just one second, when he recognized her.

            For that one second, Sendo felt himself growing cold. He sort of froze, lost in her blue eyes, and would have stayed that way if Mitsui hadn't kicked him in the shin.

            'Wake up!' Mitsui hissed angrily, the fear in his voice so prominent that Sendo snapped out of his trance and looked over to Mitsui. Mitsui stared back at him.

            'Well?' he asked.

            'Oh,' Sendo muttered under his breath, trying to focus his concentration again.

            'Onee-chan?' Rukawa tried to walk to her.

            'No! Rukawa! Don't you see? It's a trick!' Miyagi screamed. Rukawa blinked but didn't answer. Sendo whipped his head over to Miyagi who was muttering 'no' under his breath, then to Uozumi and Akagi. He mentioned for them to take over Jin's and Fujima's position, holding Rukawa back.

            'Onee-chan. What happened?' Rukawa asked in the same dazed voice.

            'We will have to take the risk in this one. Put in all your power. All!' Sendo said. The other two, Fujima and Jin nodded, and started.

            'Heh, heh, heh, he's almost mine. What you do won't stop me,' the girl at the door said.

            _That's Onee-chan's voice, but… Rukawa mentally kicked himself. __There was a tinge of malice in that voice, in that laughter; onee-chan wouldn't have that… What did she say anyway?_

            Rukawa tried to clear his head. He felt light-headed, his mind clouded over. 

            Sendo realized that Rukawa had almost come to his own mind. Could they actually attain some answers from that 'girl'? She was not very…careful. She sure didn't realize that Rukawa was nearly out of her hypothetical power. They might stand a chance…maybe.

            'Pretend, Rukawa, pretend,' Sendo told him, in mind waves, or their unique ESP.

            'Huh?' was Rukawa's reply. He was still a little bleary on what was happening right then.

            'Pretend that you still think that she's your sister. Pretend that you believe in what she says. Maybe, just maybe we might be able to gain some answers about this mysterious thing killing us all. Illogical as it may be, they're answers,' Sendo assured him.

            Fujima realized that the girl was over-confident. Even he could catch fragments of the conversation between Rukawa and Sendo, but that… 'girl', or that thing wasn't aware.

* * * * * * * * 

            'What happened, onee-chan? Why'd you leave me?' Rukawa asked, careful to make sure that his eyes were cloudy. And still…still, he wasn't exactly all that sure what was going on. The girl scrutinized him carefully, then gave him a serene smile, not answering his question. At the same time, Sendo was dispatching a message, in ESP form, to It.

            'Who're you? What'd you want? Why are you killing us all?'

            'Who am I? I'm not a who,' she answered Sendo confidently, out loud. She cast another glance at Rukawa. _No change, he's still mine. Her lips turned up into an evil grin._

* * * * * * * * 

            _'Not a who? Is that what she said, Sendo?' Fujima's question reached me__._

_            'What the heck is she?' Jin asked. _

_            'Only one way to find out,' Rukawa's answer echoed in my brain. They all seemed to be waiting for me to ask that particular question. I was the one who was supposed to be in charge, now that Rukawa was supposedly to be 'hypnotized' by the girl. I took a deep breath and voiced out… no, minded out my question. _

_            'Okay… what are you?'_

* * * * * * * * 

            'Onee-chan, are we going home?' He sounded like a five-year-old. She flashed him another smile, this time not really looking at him closely. 

            'In a minute, Hon,' 

            Rukawa shuddered, inwardly. It was a miracle how she sounded so much like Saori and yet, so unlike her. 

            Rain continued trashing against the gym, yet the silver eye of the moon still stared down at them, mocking them.

            'What am I? I am beyond. Beyond anything, any mysteries that your insignificant brain can ever fathom,' she replied, to Sendo in particular.

* * * * * * * * 

            _What is going on?_

            Ryota looked at Sendo then at Rukawa, and lastly at the girl. She was beautiful, no doubt. He felt an attraction for her, something that never happened ever since he met Ayako… and yet, there was something about that girl that made his blood run cold. He felt like running away, anywhere, as long as he could put miles between himself and her. And, there was the way she was talking to Sendo, as if answering his questions, but he hadn't actually asked any!

            _What is wrong with all of them?_

            Rukawa didn't really look as if he was alright either… and Ryota started to worry.

* * * * * * * * 

            _'Ask again.' Fujima told me.___

_            'We need to know.' This time, it was Jin__._

_            'Tell her we'd still like to know,' came Rukawa's voice, sounding more like an order then a statement._

_Jeez, why must I do this? This is so crappy! _

I was scared, very, but I didn't want them to know. Especially, that girl who is posing as…what was her name? Rukawa's sister… Saori. 

'We'd still like to know,' I sent the message, trying not to let fear rule me.

_'Is that the best you can do? At least change what I'd said a little,' Rukawa's message reached me, sounding a little bossy. Inwardly, I sighed. Even though I was sure that the thing didn't realize that we were communicating without her knowledge, I still felt that Rukawa ought to be a little more discreet. _

_I shouldn't be the one doing this._

* * * * * * * * 

'Onee-chan…'

'Yes, darling.' This time, she didn't even look at him. 

'Do you really want to know?' 

Sendo just nodded, earning him questioning looks from Ryota and some others.

'Well,' she said, choosing her words carefully, 'I've gotten one of you anyway.' She stole a small glance at Rukawa, and feeling satisfied with what she saw, she nodded a little, still wearing that evil grin.

'I'm... we're insects. Insects from the pre-historic times.'

'Nani?' Sendo asked, clearly shocked. This was the first time he actually threw a question to her out loud. But then, he wasn't the only one astonished, everyone else was too. Even Rukawa nearly blew his cover at her words.

'Yeah, right!' Takano said, clearly disbelieving.

'We are!' she stressed, nodding emphatically.

'We are just insects, the ones you humans seem to kill everyday. You think you're so smart, but then you're lacking one very important thing. You all seemed to forget what humanity and teamwork is. We, insects as we are found how important it was and is! Insects!' She seemed to totally forget that they were her enemy. She was so lost in condemning them that she was telling them all her secrets. 

'Humans think that they are the smartest, strongest, and they go around killing each other, not only physically, but also mentally and emotionally. Does that make you feel immortal? Do you think you've won when you triumph over others? Well, you're wrong, if you can't even live together in peace, then you've LOST! We, this particular species of insects that you've never heard before found that if we worked together, we can not only combine physically, which would make us bigger and stronger, but also mentally. That means we have surpassed your ability, both physically and mentally. Now, our mission is to make you see that you are just as vulnerable as the any other insects on Earth,' she said, her voice rising at her excitement, totally forgetting everything else. The only thing that was on her mind right now was condemning them and making them realize how strong she was… if they could call her a she.

There was a long pause where only thunder filled its silence.

'You are an insect? Then how come you're in such a size?' Sendo asked, his cool composure definitely ceasing to be there at all. 

'You believe this crap? Sendo!' Miyamasu asked. Sendo ignored him and others who were also grumbling under their breath and reiterated his question. She answered immediately.

'What happened to your ears huh? I had said that we are _insects, not insect. To have survived through the dinosaur era as only an insect was hard, too hard, and we decided to join forces. Physically and men…' _

'We've heard that part,' Fujima cut in, getting irritated. 

'Continue,' Jin said. The girl huffed, but continued anyway.

'It was then that we realized that we could work miracles. Things we have never even dreamed about. We had ESP. We could also become a whole being and yet, can break into pieces as whole insects. 

'Huh?' Sendo asked, not really wanting to know the answer. But it came anyway. The girl transformed before their very eyes into a large, very large human-sized ant, then back again. 

Someone screamed.

'Ayako!' Miyagi shouted. 

Sendo ignored them all. 

Rukawa, for once, shifted his eyes from her to the window, his eyes definitely not at all cloudy, looking at the rain drops falling down one after another, never ceasing.__

_What the hell? _

But he couldn't answer his own question.         

He then shifted his eyes back to her, trying his best to still look like he was in her power, which was a pretty dumb thing to do, he knew. If that thing hadn't realized by now that he was not under its power anymore, most likely, it would never realize it.

'How come you're in human form then?' Sendo asked, not bothering to use telepathy anymore. The girl didn't even look at Rukawa. She seemed to have totally forgotten her mission of coming to the gym. 

'We were… are strong. That was just another power we had when we combined. We could change into anything we fed on. Its exact shape and size. We could even mix it up, and mess it up, like changing into a half fly and half cockroach which was in a human size or even bigger,' she said eagerly.

In Rukawa's mind, something clicked. 

_Change into something they fed on… _

He felt his anger rising. _Fed on…_

'Er…' Sendo said, but his question was answered almost immediately. A stray cockroach came skittering into the room, and before their eyes, it changed into a tiny Saori Rukawa. They all stared at it, astounded. Even Rukawa suspended his anger for a while. Then that miniature of Saori walked towards the mother body and just melted together, making the real Saori looking a little, just a little, lopsided. Then, after a minute, an insect appeared from Saori's outstretched hand. It was a spider. 

Saori grinned vilely. 

That grin jolted Rukawa to his senses. Images of his sister's death danced before his eyes, and his anger returned to replace the amazement.

'Rukawa, just one more question! Please, don't lose it!' Fujima's voice screamed into his brain, while everybody else, totally oblivious to the conflict in Rukawa's brain was still staring at Saori, very shocked.

'Cool down, Rukawa,' Jin's voice circled in his brain. He snapped his eyes back to his 'sister', cursing under his breath. 

Lighting flashed. Thunder followed

His sister… blood… cockroaches… so many… it all came back to… the thing standing in front of him now…

Red flashed in his mind. The colour of blood… slowly turning into red anger. 

Sendo sensed his anger, but he had one question left. He had to know the answer. Just one.

'Why didn't you attack us from the beginning? Why did you not come in with a more scary appearance? Why a human?'

* * * * * * * * 

I smiled, my elation returning in full blast. I could feel their fear… smell it on them.

_I've won._

_Humans never learn._

_I've won._

* * * * * * * * 

She answered his question without hesitation, ignoring Rukawa, whose fury almost broke through his façade.

'I thought I would give you all another chance. I send messages to all the four teams, and the most sensitive ones picked it up. If you were together, and worked together, you would be able to keep me out with all your determination. Which you managed to do for a while, and yet at the same time, I still managed to find some weaknesses. I got Shiozaki, even though you were all aware of the danger you were facing. Saori was mainly to show you all that humans also succumbed to us… and of course to catch Rukawa off-guard.' She finally realized that she had been ignoring her real mission… Rukawa.

'But you have all failed again. Your determination didn't last long enough. Now, I'll just leave with…' she stopped in the mid-sentence. 

Rukawa, she saw, was beside himself with fury. His hands were clenched, tight, his eyes, blazing. 

The spider, the roaming spider skittered over to his so-called sister in panic, and just like before, melted into her. 

In a bitterly sweet voice which was rising at every syllabus, rising out of pure anger, he said,

'You killed my sister. You KILLED SAORI!! YOU ATE HER UP AND KILLED HER!' He was practically screaming when he finished. 

Sendo knew that this was the end of their little interview. They had to get her out of the gym, and fast. 

'Join forces! Kick her out. Remember, teamwork and determination. GO!' 

* * * * * * * * 

Fear took me, again. I hated this feeling.

_They won again. Again!_

_Who are they?_

_Why am I losing?_

Confusion and fear, the two feelings that I've learnt to feel. I have never felt fear, not even when I had to feed on the dinosaurs.

_Retreat.__ That was all I could do now._

_Retreat out of the gym._

I could feel all their hate… their determination.

_It hurts… it hurts._

* * * * * * * * 

The thing retreated out of the gym, and stood at the doorway, looking at them, changing form. Now, out there, the sounds of thunder was more often and prominent compared to the rain.

_Probably it's confused. _

Fujima looked at her, watching her change, and felt something else… a lot of other things heading for the gym.

_Oh my GOODNESS!  _

Suddenly, a whole lot of insects appeared at the door, obviously trying, and failing to enter. Half of it combined with the mother body, which was still changing shape. Then, Fujima gave a small glance towards the mother body, which was now twice as large as it had been, still swiftly changing shape. 

_What the hell?_

Now, there was a… no, half of a praying mantis… the top half, and the bottom of a worm, standing at the door. Not to mention all the cockroaches running around there, outside the gym. Fujima closed his eyes for a while, revolted at what he saw. It was so… illogically terrifying. 

* * * * * * * * 

There was another scream, a girl's scream, followed by shouts of terror.

_Thud! Apparently Ayako had fainted. More shouts._

'Ayako!' In the end, only the eight of them were still concentrating, forcing _them away._

'You may know what I am. You may know how to prevent me from entering, but you still don't know how to stop me from killing _you. Remember, I'm immortal,' it said in Mutoh's voice. A voice of pure hate. _

Jin faltered a little, but manage to gain his confidence and self-control back.

'You don't know how big I can actually become either.' The cackles that followed suddenly faded away.

* * * * * * * * 

_I lost, but you didn't win._

_I was wrong in saying that you won… because you DIDN'T._

I was scared, just a little, but I knew that they weren't as strong as they pretended to be.

_You're scared of me too._

_I'll rejoice in your fear._

I turned and left them.

_Remember, hell's burning, waiting. _

* * * * * * * * 

Mitsui looked at his watch - 9.00 pm.

            Everywhere in the gym, sounds of heavy breathing could be heard.

He looked around. They all looked so tired, and fearful. He stepped towards the door, and closed it, trying hard to not tremble. As he was doing so, he wondered what was going on in his house… was his mother worried?

'Yeah right! Whose mother would worry? It's only 9!' he muttered angrily.

* * * * * * * * 

Rain trashed down unmercifully, and outside the school, away from all the terror happening in the school gym, someone… something slithered away, softly.

A/N: Thank you all for bearing with this long chapter!!! And of course, thank you all reviewers. *hugs them all* err… I think I'm not sane at the moment, so you must forgive me!!!!


	9. Teamwork Versus Pride

**Title: Terror…**

A/N: Err… this chapter is preety long, but I just didn't know where to cut it. I'm really sorry. BTW, it's alright to inform me about all my mistakes. Seriously, I don't mind. And… pls forgive me, but Sakuragi won't make his appearance until the next chapter

sLL: Err… warn?

Adeliney: Are you serious? *jumps up and down* Thank you!!! I'm flattered. Do please continue reading… I hope I don't bore you away…

Shirodachi: Sakuragi's coming up!!!!!!

Kathleen: Haunt me? I think I should stop writing horror fic, I'm starting to freak myself out. Just joking! *hugs her* I loveee you!! Thanks for reviewing!

mental_freak: err… are you serious? My first chapter is short because it's the prologue… but I always thought the other chapters are a bit too long, not to mention this particular chapter!!!

Alexia: Err… I never knew what ESP stood for *hangs her head* . oh, and I realized that I did leave out a lot of other ppl, so this chapter (hopefully that is) has more characters. Err… an insect can't be 'a who' can it? It has to be 'a what'. About the immortal thingy… all of this are figments of my imagination, so… but I'll try to explain more about it in the later chapters if I get any ideas. Thanks for your review!!!

Lazuli: You hate spiders? I'm okay with them… I hate cockroaches even more!!! 

Devoted2Mitsui: thanks for the compliment… I don't know how I got the idea to use insects myself… 

Krappkarmin: I'll try… if I can… thanks for reviewing!!!

A/N: Hey! I'm feeling pretty frustrated. My brother is 17, and for those in Malaysia, who know what I'm talking about, he just finish his SPM, and now has just dump all his books in my room, and scaring me with all the Physics is so hard… ohhh Add-math… *sighs* . Now I have to clear all the crap in my room…

Well… anyway, I still managed to upload this chap, and I hope that you all enjoy it… oh, and you can cheer me up a little by reviewing *grins evilly* You will won't you? *cackles*

**Chapter 8- Teamwork Versus Pride**

            'Aya-chan, daijoubu ka?' Miyagi asked, eyeing his beloved Ayako, concern clearly written over his face.

            Ayako trembled slightly, the vision of the half praying-mantis and the other half of a worm still dancing in front of her eyes, but nodded anyway. 

            Yet, even after several minutes passed, she still couldn't get a hold on herself. The vision was too… strong, it refused to bug from her brain. 

_            Will it use me next?_

            Black fear stole into her heart and closed her throat at that very thought. She shuddered involuntarily.

On the other hand, at another corner of the gym…

            'Rukawa… that was your sister?' Sendo asked, cautiously. He knew that it was. It was Saori, no doubt. He also knew that Rukawa would definitely not answer his question, but he would make him. Rukawa would have to be able to admit that Saori was dead. Only then could Sendo actually say that they won this round, and Rukawa didn't have any weaknesses; at least concerning Saori, anymore.  

            Rukawa looked away, at the window, knowing Sendo's intention, but not answering anyway. He couldn't… he always thought that he accepted the fact that Saori was dead… but this time, he could not say that. He needed time to think.  

Lightning slashed through the turbulent clouds, followed closely by a crack of thunder.

'The girl in your mind just now… the one in the bathroom… was Saori?' Sendo didn't give up. He stared straight at Rukawa, who was ignoring him. 

Rukawa continued staring at the rain, his blue eyes clouded over.

_Won't the rain stop?_

_Even when onee-chan died… the rain…  _

'Rukawa…'

'Sendo, drop it, okay?' Mitsui asked trying to break the tension he felt between the two of them. 

'They won't play the same card twice, now all we have to do is try to figure out how to stay alive for another nine hours or so,' Mitsui continued, eyeing each on of them.

Sendo sighed heavily. Nine hours was a real long time, and Sendo knew that it would be impossible, impossible to beat them, if they all remained in this state. But he didn't voice out his thoughts… it was Koshino who voiced out the thought that they were all thinking at that time. 

'That's impossible. We have been here for barely an hour and about two of our friends are gone!! This is not going to work out!' Koshino muttered angrily, though not loudly. He… they did not forget that they were still the ones who were supposed to be leading the rest. 

Nevertheless, Sakuragi heard it. He had been quiet for long enough. He couldn't stand it anymore. Not only was that 'baka kitsune' leading all of them, but that idiot nearly led all of them to death. And now they wanted to give up?

_To hell with that Rukawa!_

_We need to get out of here alive! And what is he doing? Staring at the rain which has nothing at all to do with this case!_

            'This is not going to work out? Koshino, they just condemned us, cursed us! Don't you have any pride? Pride of being a human? That was just an insect! Insect! The one we squish everyday! And you're telling us that this isn't going to work out? We can't lose! Not now! We will win! Tensai(s) don't lose, especially not this one! I won't admit defeat that easily!' 

Everyone turned their attention to Sakuragi in amazement. They could see his anger… his will to win burning, and somehow, they felt their spirits rise a little.

Koshino raked his hair back, turning Sakuragi's words over in his head. His words sort of made him a little more convinced that there was a chance. Not all hope is gone… if they could all work together…

'Sakuragi is right. They killed so many of our friends. We can't just forgive them and give in! They talked about humanity… but look at them. They're killing others too… just like what we do,' Yasuda continued. But as he reached the end of his sentence, his voice lowered tremendously. When he finished, he looked around. It was obvious that he lost his confidence and was doubting his own words.

_Exactly… just like us. They were right… we do… at least some humans do simply kill others, but do we all really deserve such treatment? All? Even those who didn't do anything to hurt others?_

Then, a picture of Shiozaki formed in his head, and he felt angry, infuriated at the stupid insects that did it… killed his best friend.

_NO! We don't! _

A smile formed on Mitsui's lips as he surveyed Yasuda. He seemed to have gained his want… need for revenge back.

_Responsibility. If they all took it up too, if they… if we all worked together, we might, might just survive._

'No, Yasuda. We don't torment others and kill them for the fun of it. We don't look down on them or purposely cause them unnecessary fear… at least the majority of humans are too busy to do that. I admit that not many of us really care about others, but most of us don't have the time nor do they dare to risk their name and riches just to see others suffer. It's not out of good will, but then… at least we don't do it,' Mitsui said, trying to fish out all their confidence and strengths back.

'Come on, let's work together and fight this thing away. I haven't gotten the chance to play basketball against all of you… and I want to. Come on! We can do this! We MUST! Kiyota Nobunaga HAS to prove that he is the GOLDEN rookie! So we have to defeat it!' Kiyota butted in.

* * * * * * * *

I paced up and down, using all my eight legs, my pincers clicking together in fury and confusion. I was a spider now, twice the size of a human. Other insects, mostly cockroaches, were skittering around. 

_Why?_

_Why do they…!_

I was getting more frustrated.

Suddenly I felt a huge burst of energy from the gym. The barrier was getting stronger. I definitely couldn't enter now, not even with my mind.

_Shit!_

_What the heck is wrong?!_

_Did they do something?_

_Are they all really working together now?_

The thousands… no millions of insects running around became panicked. They started making weird noises and scuttled along more hurriedly then ever.

We were all one body, and I could feel their fear, blooming inside me. I wanted to send spies… but didn't dare. I was already too hurt.

_What the hell happened?_

_Damn you all!_

_I made a mistake! I shouldn't have told them anything!_

I started pacing again, tension and fear building inside me. Every once in a while, an insect would pop out of me and join the rest. Sure, they don't know how big I am… how to defeat me… but that might not stop them. They will find a way.

_I need a new strategy…_

_I'll get you!_

_Nobody will surpass me._

_NO! I'm the greatest!_

* * * * * * * *

Rukawa looked around and felt their determination and strength increasing. 

_That's also what always happens in our losing games. We console each other and gain strength from each other._

_That was what they were all looking for, especially Sendo… even if they didn't realize it, they were. This is how we would be able to beat them all, by teamwork. It was that do'aho who did it. That red-head monkey, stupid as he is, he could do this, change the mood… _

_But it doesn't work for me…_

Suddenly, another memory of his sister came shooting up from his subconscious. This time however, he didn't push it away, but let it come. The memory was so strong that it took total control of him, sparking a fire in him. A fire to vanquish these insects that caused his so much pain.

* * * * * * * *

'Kaede, behind you, be careful… No! Don't kill it!' Saori said to her little brother, who frowned at her shout.

'Why not?' The spider that he meant to kill scuttled along quickly. They both watched the spider, one, sad, the other, nearly reaching out to squish it. 

Saori's mind flicked back to everything that had happened to her best friend when she was nine. How her innocent friend's life was ended although she had not done anything at all. How people now a days were so cold-hearted. Six years had passed, and yet, she couldn't get her out of her mind. 

A tear fell from her eyes.

'Onee-chan, daijoubu ka?' A small hand wiped her tear away. She smiled up at the five year-old boy in front of her. 

'Daijoubu… that spider has a life too. Killing it would be a sin, and that poor spider… I mean, you're killing it, just like killing anything else.' Kaede looked up at his sister, his eyes wide with fear.

'Demo… we kill mosquitoes all the time… and sometimes we accidentally kill spiders and other insects!' Saori just laughed at his innocence. 

_If only everyone was as innocent as children, there would be much less wickedness in the world._

'No, you see, humans are still more important, much more important then insects and other creatures. If it bothers you or harms you, then kill it! If you need it… then, use it. We eat animals, don't we? We all have to struggle to life anyway. Even insects kill each other for food. All I'm saying is that we shouldn't use our power as humans, who are better and smarter then the rest, to purposely kill others. As for accidents, well, they're accidental, it's not your fault.' Kaede nodded slowly.

'As I said, we all struggle to live… but if something or someone minds its own business… well, why hurt it? Even if you have the power to, don't! This especially concerns our behaviour with other humans. But with them, it's different, even if we're richer, older, better… there's no such thing as I'm more important compared to you,' Saori continued. Her little brother nodded again. Saori smiled radiantly and her brother smiled back.

* * * * * * * * *

'Onee-chan… you are right. I think now I understand better. We are all too greedy. Just because we are strong, we think we can do it. But we should keep our hands to ourselves, and not hurt people who never did anything to us. Yet, this time it did. It harmed you and hurt me… and I'll pay it back!' Rukawa muttered. Saori was kind. She knew the value of a life and the meaning of humanity. And yet…

Suddenly Sendo's voice cut through his thoughts, pushing him back into reality.

'Look, we all have to acknowledge one thing here. This thing is REAL! It's not a figment of our imagination, it's not a game, it's not logical, but it is real! Disbelieve will only widen chances for us to be harmed by it.' He looked specifically at Nagano and Takano when he said that. After a moment of consideration, they both nodded, though reluctantly. 

'Okay, now, the only problem left… is how to defeat it… them,' Hanagata said.

'We _can defeat it. Tensai is here!' Sakuragi said, slipping a little into his tensai mood._

'Baka! We're asking HOW!' Akagi scolded Sakuragi.

'Yes, yes, how! I knew we would reach this far. I will check!' Hikoichi said aloud. Everyone stared at the boy who could be considered short in the basketball world. He was hardly aware that they were all looking at him, smiles drawn upon their lips. 

Rain beat with sudden fury at the building that they were all in.

_We are all helping, with or without our realization._

_The atmosphere is lighter, good._

Fujima knew, as a basketball player and captain, not to mention coach; he knew that the atmosphere or mood was very important in a game. It was the same here. At least they all understood each other on one aspect –basketball, and could help each other. But there was something that worried hum. The rain. The way it suddenly came down much harder then before suggested that it knew that they were getting stronger.

_It's so dangerous in here._

Rukawa looked around, trying to shut all the noise out. It was good that they were feeling better, but he didn't… couldn't really care. There was something that had nearly clicked in his brain before Sendo cut through his thoughts. He thought hard.

_We're all too greedy because we're strong…_

Then it clicked. Before we can be greedy, we have to achieve at least something first. And when that happens, we tend to be proud of what we achieved… and when we are proud, we tend to overlook the most important thing and become very careless.

By now, all the other voices were merely incoherent blabber to Rukawa. He continued thinking hard. Suddenly lightning slashed through the panoply of clouds, then another, without pause. Thunder reverberated through the low sky and seemed to hammer on the roof of the building. 

'Onee-chan… Arigatou.' For the first time since Saori died, Rukawa smiled.

_It's scared. Someone has found something. _

That thought crossed Sendo's, Fujima's and Jin's mind at the same time.

* * * * * * * *

I stopped pacing all of a sudden.

_Something is wrong here._

_Something is very wrong in here._

All the other insects around me were running around in a much more hurried… panicked manner. With our super sharp instinct, we could pick up a sense… something was different… in a bad way.

_Shit!_

_What now?_

* * * * * * * *

'The only way to stay alive is to defeat it. To defeat it, we have to find its weakness… pride,'

'That's right. It's the only thing we can count on,' Hanagata said, backing him up. 

'Kitsune… you talk as if you know everything! Let the Tensai…'                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

'Urusei-ne baka!' Akagi scolded the red-head, giving him a solid punch on the head at the same time. 

'Why can't you listen?' But then, actually, Akagi was pretty glad that Sakuragi was being noisy again. It really helped to release the tension they had all been feeling. He had been so quiet since they arrived to Shoyo that even Akagi himself had worried. Now, he turned his attention back to Rukawa, obviously waiting for more.

But Rukawa didn't continue. He just looked around, waiting for someone to break the silence.

 'Pride is not…' Kakuta started softly, but he was drowned by an even louder voice.

'Rukawa, pride is not a weakness…' Kiyota said, in his irritatingly loud voice of his. But he received a punch from Maki which shut him up.

'Urusei! Let him explain.'

'Pride leads to over-confidence. That was why it loss to us just now,' Rukawa muttered, his voice barely heard over the rain and thunder.

'Yeah, it boasts about what it doesn't know. Talk about humanity and immorality… but it was not concentrating on the real reason it was in the gym,' Hanagata muttered. Then it dawned on all of them, the knowledge weighing down heavily on them. 

'Yeah, yeah!' Mitsui said, hardly able to contain his excitement. 

'I knew it!' Hikoichi exclaimed, earning him an irritated glance from Ryota. Sakuragi opened his mouth to say something, but he was cut short by a soft mysterious voice.

'How?' There was a long pause.

'Sendo-san… nani?' Hikoichi asked, shattering the stillness in the gym.

'How's that going to help us?' Sendo repeated simply.

A/N: Well? Did you all enjoy it? Thanks for bearing with me. As you can see, I tried to cover up my mistake of missing out on lots of the characters… =( hope it wasn't so obvious. If you don't like it… please review and tell me what's wrong. And if you like it… don't hesitate!!!!! I might be expanding the plot a little bit more in the next chapter… hope it'll turn out fine!!


	10. Another?

**Title: Terror…**

A/N: Well… you people really DID make my day!!! I use to think that I liked Science, but now I'm not sure…. Maybe I might still like pysics *goes on blabbing about herself*. But… Oh my goodness!!! What am I doing? *slaps herself* NOOOO! Don't run away!! Look, here's chapter 10 for you, and I promise I would never ever bore you with my life story ever again!!! Just go on and read it!!! PLEASE! *Her bro comes by* 'I've always doubted her sanity' *Frozenfemale glares at her bro, frowning* So, do pls read and review this chapter… *frown disappears*  I really hope you guys enjoy yourself!!

Here're my answers to reviewers… my wonderful reviewers!!!

sLL: *Grins* It's a good thing that you reminded me about Sakuragi!!! Personally, the Tensai mode gets on my nerve at times, but then, it makes the show much more fin!!

Eliar Swiftfire: Really, I think most of my fics might have that. Shallow huh? 

Kathleen: You're soooo NICE!!! I love you! Yes, I will continue whenever I can!!! Thanks a lot for the support! And also for putting me on the fav. list *winks* THANKS!

Anduril: *runs around chasing Anduril with a knife* I'll kill you for that!!! However, thanks for reviewing…. But if you really only liked my fic b'coz of the Rukawa part *frowns* then you might be finding my fic very boring from now on… BTW, if my memory serves rightly, Anduril is Aragorn's sword isn't it? Are you a LOTR fan?? I really admire that guy… Tolkien (if that is the right spelling)….His book is cool!

Alexia: To tell you the truth, I myself don't understand lots of parts in this fic. *Pulls her hair out in frustration* Still can't find the answers!!! I'll try my best to improve, as long as you people help me on the way! Arigatou! 

Lazuli: Will ya step on the cockroach for me too? Golden rookie… that was a last effort to cover my mistake of forgetting them all! *grins*

Isami-chan: Wow! Thanks a LOT for the compliment! You're so kind *sob* Are you a Malaysian too? BTW, not that it matters, but I'm not Malay. Like I said, not that it matters… but I'm a Chinese Christian. Well, anyway, Hari Raya to you too!

Zirc: Err… I'm a Malaysian, so I don't really understand what omedetou is. *grins* Care to enlighten me? Did my fic really scare you? That's cool! Thanks a lot!!!!!

Ayce Shade: Yup! Wait a minute…. NOPE! I don't actually have a war against them. That's because I'll be screaming my head off when I see a cockroach, then either my bro or dad will kill it…. and if I see other insects that I'm not scared of, I'll just leave them.

**Chapter 9- Another?******

            'What are you talking about?' Sakuragi asked.

            'In other words, how are we going to use its weakness against it?' Sendo rephrased his question. There was a moment of silence where some of the players still looked a little confused.

            'We know that it … they are proud, but that doesn't mean that it will automatically lose focus and be careless. We need to make their pride get the better of them. But how?' Koshino explained to those who didn't really understand.

            'Tensai will…' But Sakuragi never got to finish his sentence. With the little knowledge he had, he still had some brains to shut up, which was something he very rarely did, at the dark look of anger on Akagi's face.

            'Well, there could be two possibilities,' Kogure said, ignoring his two teammates who were shooting angry glances at each other. 

            'We can either provoke it, or we can lick its shoes. You know, like praising it, and pretending to think that it is great, and all that,' Kogure continued.

            'Provoke? How exactly do we do that…' Miyamasu asked.

            'Well, we could like…' Kogure scratched his head nervously, 'praise someone else… or even boast about ourselves, making it angry and lose focus,' Kogure explained.

            The wind swirled through the trees, rustling the leaves. 

            Rukawa cast a glance outside.

            _The wind… that was new._

_             __It didn't exactly feel peaceful either._

            Feeling troubled, he took his eyes away from the window, and tried his best to ignore it.

            Hanagata raked his hair back, feeling relieved at this rare teamwork…and togetherness that he felt. 

            _We're working together at last. Yatta!_

_            The air is much lighter… at least in here… outside…_

_            The air was very different outside. It was still raining heavily, but now, joined with a totally new element… wind._

            Besides Hanagata, a few others were also a little disconcerted by the wind. It came so suddenly…and it didn't seem to belong. It didn't seem to come from the thing that was causing the rain. It felt _odd._

            Sendo shivered a little, wondering. 

            'Are we going to its lair, or are we going to wait for it to um…attack us?' Uekusa asked quite suddenly, breaking all their thoughts on the forces of nature that seemed to be toying with their feelings.

            'You know, that's a fair question. We can't just continue waiting for it to attack us,' Ishii spoke up, his voice determined.

            'Yeah, yeah. We can't wait. What if it…kills one of us in the next attack?' Uekusa backed him up. Clearly the attack on _him has not been erased from his mind just yet._

            'We can't leave this gym.' Ishii turned to the person who said it.

            _Maki, typical.___

            'Why not? I totally agree with them. We can't wait!' Ikegami said, his eyes burning.

            'Yare, yare. The way you people are talking…do you have any idea how to beat it yet? Now all we know is how to prevent it from entering this gym. Why don't we try to figure out how to kill it first before talking about going to attack it?' Jin asked casually, smiling a little at their attitude. At least they were past the stage of fear.

            'Then we should just wait? Is that what you are asking us to do?' Ishii demanded.

            'That's stupidi…' a Shoyo second-year was saying, until Rukawa cut in.

            'Stupidity? Was that what you were about to say? Stupidity? Let me tell you one thing, talking about beating it when you don't even know anything about it is a hundred times more stupid compared to waiting here and figuring out what to do. We can't leave this gym. It is the thing that is binding us together, preventing us from being attacked. If we step outside, be it the thing's lair, or just out there, in the field, we won't be protected anymore. We'll be vulnerable.' Rukawa said, looking at the Shoyo second-year… at least with his eyes he was. His mind, on the other hand was focused on the Shohoku freshman who had spoken up. There was something strange about him. Rukawa could sense something… evil… no, more like reproach and anger when Maki answered his first question… at Maki's answer.

            'How long? How long can we last here? How long _will we last in here?' Ishii asked again._

            Rukawa's eyes narrowed. That was something distinctly odd about the way Ishii was so… courageously out-spoken. Usually the first-years, with the obvious exception of Sakuragi, Hikoichi, Kiyota and himself, were timid in front of the seniors. He chanced a look at Ishii.

            Lightning snapped down from the dark skies. The wind howled softly. Softly… and yet it left a lot of the basketball players feeling absolutely terrified.           

            Rukawa felt increasingly nervous. 

            _He looks different… confident, and… totally scary._

_            Suddenly Rukawa felt another presence… there was something else… and it was inside the gym. _

_It's not the insects, but I can feel the malice and murderous intent ever so clearly._

_Stronger, definitely stronger, and… more evil.___

Rukawa's fear became a wave of roaring panic, screaming in his brain. He turned to Sendo, wanting to know if Sendo felt it too. Was Sendo worried by it? Could Sendo even feel it? Or… was it only his imagination?

Rukawa knew very well that it wasn't his imagination… but still, he wished it to be. He wished it like mad.

_This basketball court is becoming a nightmare…_

Unfortunately, Sendo had his back to Rukawa, and could not see the panic that had overcame him.

'… happened… then?'

Rukawa shifted his eyes to Fujima, all the words that the others were blabbering becoming unintelligible to him.

Fujima was talking to another guy, too busy to notice what was happening to Rukawa. A bolt of panic shot up Rukawa's nerves. 

'…kawa? ... ee-chan… …?'

He couldn't make out what the person was saying. He didn't even want to. His eyes scanned the gym frantically for Jin. 

* * * * * * * *

_There's something else in that gym._

_Something maliciously evil…_

            My breathing got heavier. The hatred and evil I felt radiating from the… whatever in the gym was so overwhelming. I shuddered.

            More insects popped out of me. I was shrinking, fast. I couldn't take the weight of terror that was being thrown on me all of a sudden. 

            I vanished. 

            We ran around, millions of us, running around, thinking the same thoughts, bearing the same fear.

_There was something else in the gym!_

* * * * * * * *

            'Rukawa, Rukawa! What's wrong? 'Mitsui asked, shaking a very perplexed Rukawa who had ignored several calls from his teammate. Rukawa had been scanning the gym, totally oblivious the questions directed to him.

            He broke out of his trance, suddenly aware that he was receiving a lot of unwanted attention. 

            'What is it?' he asked, a little too quickly and hostilely. Under normal circumstances, Mitsui would have snapped back an irritating reply, but today, he was taken aback.

            'We've been calling you for the past five minutes!' Fukuda replied, on behalf of Mitsui and the rest of them.

            'Oh… yeah?' 

            _What the hell is wrong with this guy?_

_            Sendo stared straight at Rukawa, who met his eyes. The fear in Rukawa's eyes shocked Sendo. There was urgency in that fear. The cold blue eyes that stared back into his were totally different from anyone else's in the gym at that moment. _

            'What?' he mouthed at Rukawa. He had no idea what the rookie was so scared of… why was he so secretive and urgent? There was nothing to hide… was there?

            'We were asking… um… what happened to… err… your uh… sister in the end,' Hanagata said uncomfortably.

            'We thought we might be able to find out a little more about It that way, and maybe find a weakness, but you just ignored us and started looking around the gym for… whatever you were looking for in such a panicked manner. What's wrong?' It was Koshino this time.

Rukawa just shook his head, his eyes flicking to Ishii and back to Koshino.

'All that was left of her after an hour was a… her skeleton,' Rukawa muttered quietly, his mind not really focused on what he was saying. 

The silence in the gym was so thick that Ryota found it hard to breath. He was quickly reminded of Mutoh's death. 

_All the bones were removed, and yet, the organs remained undamaged…_

Ryota shuddered, breaking into cold sweat.

_It can feed in many different ways… and the stupid thing is fooling around with us!_

For some reason or another, that thought scared Ryota more than anything else had, even more than what happened to Shiozaki had. He cast a quick glance at Ayako.

At the same time, Rukawa sent a one-word message to Sendo.

_Ishii._

Lightning illuminated the whole gym, and Sendo looked over to the Shohoku first-year. He gave a small gasp… but it went unheard.

Ishii's face was contorted with… pain and terror…

And yet, with it, was an evil sense of… _confidence._

     A/N: So?? How was it? Well, you could all do me a great favor by reviewing… and I really want to thank my reviewers. I mean it!! You guys are so nice to me!!!!! Oh BTW, *grins sheepishly* I do have a new fic called Malice In Darkness… personally, I don't think that the title has anything to do with the story… and it's supposed to be a horror story too, though I would say that it ain't as good as this one. Actually, like this fic, I have no idea where that fic is heading… typical me!! Well…. I really want to say thanks!!!!!!!!!! I love you people. (Don't want to use guys too much, sounds a little sexist!)


	11. Ishii

**Title: Terror…**

A/N: Hey again!!! Well, I'm sorry I took quite a while to upload, still working on getting a plot done in my other fic… well, thanks a lot for bearing with me and reviewing!! I LOVE you guys!!!

sLL: Actually, I didn't really know how to finish it, so I had to come up with something. BTW, how do you know so much Japanese?

Kathleen: Ah… as you know I have this sense to know… *gets a punch on the head by someone who looks suspiciously like Akagi* um… maybe not. I scouted around and found out. I really thank you!!!! Em… I've uploaded a new chapter in Malice in Darkness… to me, by far, the scariest chapter I ever wrote… maybe it was because I was typing at night… *goes into thinking mode*

Lazuli: Err… no one died yet? We'll see…

Hederus: Thanks a lot!!!! 

KaedeRukawa-kill: I wonder if I can… but no, this is NOT a yaoi fic! I might not be able to upload 2 chapters every week, because I have another fic going, called Malice in Darkness, do read and review that too!!! Arigatou.

Shidorachi: Thank you!!! I'm sending chapter 11 soon…

Krappkarmin: Thanks for reviewing…. Er… Jin? Did I forget him? Wait, let me check!

Sakura88: Hey! Thanks for reviewing. You reviewed my other fic too didn't you? Friends, Lover and Brothers… You know B.M too? That's cool!!! Oh, and I do have another fic on, called Malice in Darkness, do please read and review it!! *hint, hint*

**Chapter 10- Ishii**

_            What the hell is happening in here?_

            Sendo stared at Ishii for a few more seconds.

            _The rain, thunder, lightning and… wind. These are not merely natural disasters! It had a different sense of malice in them…_

            Sendo pulled his eyes away from Ishii, and met Rukawa's eyes. He too was terrified. Sendo felt cold fear choking him.

            _There's something else in the gym! Something terribly sinister…_

            That thought was so strong that Fujima and Jin turned to look at them, a little surprised. Even though Sendo and Rukawa hadn't actually tried dispatching any message to them yet, they could _feel Sendo's thoughts that were filled with terror._

            Then, suddenly, Fujima had the sudden feeling that there was something… He felt… another_PRESENCE_

_            Another? Now? What the heck?… and why is this  one so… evil?_

            Jin too realized that there was something in here. Something _else. _

            It's kinda funny. I didn't realize anything until I started looking for it… or until I got an admonition from Sendo.

 I don't like this…

_             The four of them cringed as they felt the unwanted evil waves become stronger and more hated. All of them turned their eyes onto Ishii… the waves, once undetectable, now overpoweringly strong, was definitely coming from him. But they looked away quickly at the look his face held._

            The four of them pulled away from their group of friends and gathered at one corner of the gym. 

            Outside, lightning continued to stab down from the dark gloomy skies ab_ove. _

            '…yeah … Tensai Sakuragi … ouch! Gori…' Sakuragi's voice floated over to them. They were so oblivious of the danger they might be facing.

            'Do'aho,' Rukawa muttered. But Sakuragi's worry-free voice only gave rise to Rukawa's fears. He himself didn't know what they were up against, and if it was God's will that he didn't need to know, he would be perfectly pleased with God's will as he didn't have any desire to know. But the way they couldn't feel anything at all…

            _This basketball court is really__ turning into a nightmare._

            They were all very quiet, and terribly scared. Sendo decided that they should go through whatever they knew about _this new creature… that is if they knew anything at all._

_            Is it going to try to stop us?_

            However, as Sendo opened his mouth to ask them to name the things that they knew about this, another voice cut in.

* * * * * * * * 

            There was an ant skittering around, finding for food. Ishii looked at it, a little amused, and more than a little pleased.

            _At least there are some insects that aren't under its power._

            It wasn't all that funny that he was pleased to see an ant as he was really into insects, and loved them tremendously… but after what happened, it was not funny _at all. Then his eyes fell onto a spider that was trying to squeeze through the hole under the door. The corners of his mouth twitched into a smile. _

            That same smile however, vanished when the spider entered the gym and turned towards him. There was something distinctly odd about the way it looked at him, as if sizing him… something distinctly_ evil _

            Ishii started backing away. A quiver of icy dread went through Ishii's body. 

            _What's with that spider?_

            He looked around for that ant, to see if that ant was acting in the same weird way the spider was acting. The ant, he found, was acting in a far more weirder, and yet, to Ishii, more logical way. _It was running away from the spider. _

            _Could it be… is the spider in its power too? Is it one of them… one of the insects?_

            Ishii trembled visibly. Lifting his eyes to his friends, he saw that none of them realized that there was a weird acting spider in the gym. Apparently, they also didn't realize how scared he was, and he didn't blame them. He was always the unsocial one, and it wasn't an exception now. They were all in a circle, but he was alone, standing with his back to the wall. 

            Then, he felt something trying to enter him. Something terribly bad… and it was succeeding. 

            _Is the spider intruding into me? Is that possible? I mean it's still standing there, motionless now, looking at me… expectantly?_

            He tried to lift his hands to tab his friend on the back, but couldn't. Fear seemed to have locked his muscles together. More than that, his fear was wavering on the edge of panic. 

            It was then that the sudden sure understanding and knowledge hit him. It wasn't the spider. The spider was just a mode of transport, a place to live. The spider was a mere nothing. The thing that seemed so evil, that seemed to have a weird kind of hold on Ishii was _in the spider. And Ishii knew that he was the next target. It would use him next. A new mode of transport… or whatever it was that the thing wanted. Ishii didn't know, and didn't want to. _

            Thunder screamed out in the cold night, and the spider seemed to awaken from a kind of hypnotized sleep and quickly scuttled away from the gym. 

            It was his turn, Ishii.

            The… creature… or whatever it was entered Ishii, taking control of him.

            The skies above continued weeping.

            The moon leered down on all of them, the helpless ones in the gym.

* * * * * * * * 

            We were held in fear and awe of the new thing in the gym. But… we couldn't place it. It didn't fit into any group of things we fed on in all the eras we've lived in. quickly, we combined, although the fear was great. But then, our mind power would increase too, and we dearly needed that now. 

_It is in a bigger form now!_

_It spread!_

            More insects were still joining into me, and still, I was lost.

_It was now using a bigger space in the gym…_

_How?_

            I was getting real big. Even as a centipede, I filled the whole corridor. I myself was surprised at how big I could become. It has been a long time since we all joined into one body like this… almost a thousand years… maybe two has passed. And yet, I was never as scared I was now. The worse thing is that I still couldn't figure what it was…

_What the heck is it?_

_Why am I so terrified of It? _

_How does it spread?_

* * * * * * * * 

            'I'm not in control,' Ishii screamed… in his own head. He had little control of his mind, and absolutely no control whatsoever of his body, 

            'It's not me! I'm not speaking!!!' Ishii screamed again, or at least tried to, when he realized that he was talking out loud, telling everyone that it was ridiculous to wait. 

_            Shut up! No one can hear you, and if you treasure this filthy life of yours, you'll shut the hell up!_

            Ishii did just that. By the sound of the terrible voice, he knew that it meant business. 

            The discussion of whether they should attack its lair continued, with Ishii participating very actively, to a lot of people's surprised. 

After a while, Ishii realized that Rukawa, Sendo, Fujima and Jin had pulled away from the group and were gathered at one corner of the gym. 

An idea struck him.

* * * * * * * *

            '_Ooooo! Somebody realizes that I'm intruding?'_

            Everyone stopped talking. The light atmosphere that they were creating was suddenly weighed down with fear. This voice… it was not the same… it was far worse compared to the first one, the insects' voice.

            Rukawa whipped his head towards Ishii, but Ishii was as scared as everyone else… and the voice didn't seem to come from Ishii anyway. It came from… everywhere. 

            '… kawa… elp… not… control…help…' 

            A voice spoke to him, in his head. But that voice was very blur, as if there was a bad connection between him and the person asking for help. It was as if something was between them. 

            'Someone's trying to tell me something,' Rukawa whispered to the three around him. They nodded, looking around the gym, trying to trace the voice. 

            Hanagata was watching the four of them, looking for something… The whole gym was blanketed with fear and silence.

_            They don't miss anything…_

            _They are__ quite observant. But, why didn't they tell the others and me anything? Hanagata wondered in his heart._

            Fukuda cast his eyes outside. The rain was non-stop. It just kept pouring down. The wind was rustling the leaves.

_            What's wrong with tonight?_

            He rubbed his hands together, looking around for the source of the mysteriously evil voice. Then, his eyes fell on Ishii. 

            _What's up with him?_

            Ishii was trembling uncontrollably. His eyes were wide, but not out of fear, like everyone else's. It was out of pain!

            Lightning striked, and the gym light wavered, went off for a while. 

            Suddenly…

'AHHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhh……..' 

            Rukawa and the rest of them jerked, hard. It was a mind voice, sure… but it was a hell of a loud one. They looked around frantically, but could find nothing in the darkness.

            Everyone was mercifully quiet. Even Ayako didn't scream when the lights went off. 

            Rukawa felt increasingly nervous. The name Ishii was dancing in front of his mind's eyes. 

_            That was Ishii… wasn't it?_

            The scream… everything happened in a matter of seconds. The lights came on again soon enough, and there were a few sighs of relieve. But they didn't last for long.

            Fukuda was the first one to see it. Even when the light went off, he hadn't taken his eyes away from Ishii, but now, he lay on the ground, unmarked, but unmistakably dead. At first, he was shocked, but soon enough, his shock was washed away by a wave of terror.

            _How the hell did that happen?_

            Although he did not expect an answer, he got one. A voice whispered in his head.

            _Because I was here…_

            And then Fukuda did something he never in his life did before. He screamed. 

* * * * * * * * 

_It killed someone. _

_Shit! In a matter of seconds, without me realizing, it killed someone!_

_            I was now far from panicked or scared. I was __terrified. And still, I could sense its presence._

            _It shrunk._

* * * * * * * * 

            '_You underestimated me didn't you?'_

            By now, almost all the Shohoku players were shouting and screaming in misery. The first-years weren't quiet and timid anymore. They shouted curses, screamed Ishii's name out loud. Even some of the Ryonan players shed tears at their grievous cries. They hardly cared about the voice that was giving them warnings. Most of them had nearly given up all hope on living anyway.

            Rukawa wasn't crying, but he was weighed down with guilt. 

            _I shouldn't have whispered it out loud._

_            'You underestimated me didn't you?' _

            Again, the voice, taunting them, sounding more dangerous now. Sendo, Fujima and Jin looked around nervously. They didn't dare fool around with this voice the way they did with the first. This… thing was far more evil, horribly serious… and not to mention unmerciful.

            'It was Ishii! He was calling out to us, trying to tell us something… Asking for _help,' Rukawa muttered to the now silent gym. When the voice repeated the warning, or the taunt, most of the players took it more seriously and shut up. But occasional snivels could still be heard. The remorsed players stared at Rukawa uncomprehendingly. _

            _'He paid dearly for it.'_

            Rukawa looked up and scanned the gym, but could find nothing at all. Nothing that could explaine even a little about the thing that killed Ishii. He shifted his eyes towards Ishii. There was no bruise… no blood… no nothing! But he was dead!

            _Damn it. Damn you, whoever you are… whatever you are!_

            Mustering as much courage as he could, he walked over to Ishii.

            Without anyone noticing, an ant skittered out of the gym.

     A/N: So??? I have a feeling that this fic is getting more boring and less scary. Well… I don't know… do please review my fic (I do sound real desperate don't I? Something must be wrong with me…) and also, to those who don't know, there's another fic called Malice in Darkness… do please review it!!! Oh, BTW, I do recommend you guys to read Amen, it's a Yaoi fic (I dunno why I read it, I'm not a Yaoi fan, and the chapters are rather long… but that fic is real nice and funny!!)  


	12. Hopelessness

**Title: Terror…**

A/N: *Grins* I know I took a long time to upload… gomen… BTW, I really want to thank all the reviewers!!!! *Hugs all of you* Thanks! Oh, and Christmas is coming!!! Yay!!! I hope I can upload at least one more before Christmas though… I'm going to be real busy after that…

sLL: Ei??? Wait a minute… I think you're getting it wrong…. The ant is just a mode of transport for the _new thing… thanks anyway, and do continue reviewing-ne? Arigatou. Sakura88 is your form-mate?? Did she receive PTS? (well, I assume the 88 stands for 1988, as my e-mail stands for) *sweatdrops* _

Kathleen: Uh… sorry for taking so long to up-load it… well, I'm continuing… and really, thanks a lot!!!

Lazuli: *grins* Thanks!!!! But… it wasn't the ant… it was something _using the ant._

KaedeRukawa-kill: Uh… sorry to keep you waiting for so long… I'll try to upload at least one more before Christmas, then I'm going for a camp… probably won't upload anymore until the end of the year… Christmas keeps me busy!!! Thanks for reading my fic!! 

Krappkarmin: Yuck is right!!! Eww imagine Kiyota and Sakuragi… *shudders* No, no… it wasn't either one, it was the thing _inside them…_

**12aiN: Don't worry, I think I need some rushing!! *grins* I know I'm getting lazy…. Thanks for liking my story!!**

Alexia: Ishii? The gray-haired freshman who is wearing specs… I know, my explanation is not that good, I hope you'll continue helping me in improving… if I am improving at all… but do still help me… *sweatdrops* I tried to not focus on the main this time… how's it?

Magenta blues: Fallen? Is it a horror movie?? I wanna see it!!! NO! *wails* Why would you want to stop giving me ideas? Do continue giving me ideas!!!!! I might try it!!!

Eliar Swiftfire: Err.. blood, gore? You'll think I'm weird… but I hate disgusting stuff… but still, I'll try. Uh… do please continue commenting… I really want to do better…. Arigatou!

Crazy4u: Let me introduce myself…. Ahem… I'm a 14-year-old-girl who stays in Seremban and goes to Puteri, which was recently convent, but they changed it… Err… you like spiders?!!!!! Well, actually, I don't exactly hate them… but… Does your school offer Japanese lessons??? Mine doesn't… none of the government schools in Seremban does actually… it's soo cool!!!!! Uh, I hope I do well too!!! BTW, enjoy yourself while you still can…

Hisashi Loves Yelen: Thanks for all the compliments!!! You're too kind… actually, to tell you the truth, I didn't know actually expect any insects in this fic… as for the other evil, I couldn't find a proper ending, so I decided that I would expand the plot while I think of a proper ending… *blushes* but still, please continue reading and reviewing!!!! Thanks!!!  

**Chapter 11-Hopelessness**

            Rukawa was examining Ishii's body carefully, trying, yet failing to find something unusual. Like some mark. All around the rookie, the players were starting to get a hold of themselves. The fright and terror weren't exactly gone, but still, they were a little more relaxed. They all knew the same thing, though they didn't know how, didn't know when, but they knew.

            _It's gone. _

* * * * * * * * 

            I was moving to the gym, ever so slowly. Slow, not only because of my size, not only because of the stupid barrier that they had managed to erect with their determination, but slow, simply because of the fact of that inexplicable, tenacious fear which hung on to me. 

_It's left the gym._

            Far as I was from the gym, I could register that thought. 

_So, why on Earth do I have the feeling that something terrible is going to happen?_

_            And yet, I knew the answer. I knew the idiotic answer to all my meaningless questions. That was the real reason I was here. That was the real reason I am feeling so damn scared._

_I can't trace it anymore._

            That was the reason to everything…

* * * * * * * * 

            'It's gone,' Fujima muttered softly, marveling at the fact that the thing could enter the gym and exit it with such subtleness that they couldn't pinpoint the exact time they felt it leave. It just wasn't there anymore. 

            'You guys knew it all along, didn't you? You knew, and you deliberately didn't let us in on the juicy information you guys caught,' Hanagata said, softly, and very sinisterly. Fujima looked at him, a little shocked. The seven of the so-called leaders, excluding Rukawa, were now gathered at one corner of the gym. 

            Hanagata, Mitsui, Koshino and Maki looked at the three of them, waiting for an explanation. Jin stared right back at them, feeling the tension and shock increasing.

            _They look so… angrily accusing…_

             'Let me join you guys,' suddenly Sakuragi appeared behind Koshino, scaring all of them, at the same time, relieving a little of the tension they all felt.

            'Nani?' Maki asked, a little too fast and a little too harshly. But they, for some reason or another, they were so angry, that they had completely forgotten their role of so-called leading the rest to safety. 

            'Is that a no? Why? Why don't you trust the brains of a Tensai? Instead, you take that…' here Sakuragi glared at Rukawa, who was few feet away, bent over Ishii's body, '… that kitsune into your trust!' 

            Rukawa made no sign that he had heard them, but he did. Although he knew it was impossible, he did. All the way from Hanagata's insane accusation, to Sakuragi's stupid outburst of anger. 

            He wasn't worried about Sakuragi. That guy was a pain, yeah. He got angry very fast, picked fights, and all those crap, but he was seldom serious. No matter what, Rukawa was sure that Sakuragi would protect all of them in here, as well as their pride as humans, for he was very loyal… and proud too.

            No, it wasn't Sakuragi that worried him, it was, miraculously, Hanagata that did. There was something decidedly odd about the way he seemed so… angry at… nothing. It was not just odd… it was _frightening._

_            Why do I feel as if this is just not some random fight? He questioned himself. And he got the answer, not an immediate one, but his instinct did the rest, when his ears picked up a conversation from another corner of the room. It was among the Shohoku substitutes, Kogure excluded._

            'It's us again!'

            'It's so unfair! Why couldn't they take someone from Ryonan? Nobody there died yet! And… of all persons Ishii… he was so… innocent!' 

            'Yeah,' Kakuta said, running his hand through his hair, thinking hard.

            'There's something very weird about this whole thing… Do you realize that besides Shiozaki and Ishii, there is no concrete evidence that the rest are, you know, um… dead.' Some of the freshman looked at him in a queer uncomprehending way.

            'Hey… that's true,' Yasuda said thoughtfully.

            'Sempai… nani?' Kuwata asked. Yasuda looked a little surprised at being jerked out of his thoughts all of a sudden.

            'Ei? Oh… it's a fact that we have like absolutely no evidence whatsoever that the rest were really attacked.  But in Shiozaki's case, his…scream was one hell of an evidence. It was obviously no fake. I know him well enough to testify in the court that he is a terrible actor. And… anyway, it contained too much of fear to not be true. One wouldn't have to know him well to realize that there was no way that could be a fake. Ishii… there's no need to explain that. But look around, Mutoh, Ito even Uekusa could be faking. Mutoh might not be dead. For all we know, he might be at home, laughing his head off at us. All we got was Ayako's word and the rest's story. Ito? Who knows? He might still be alive and well out there. His scream did not seem to contain any fear… heck! It hardly contained anything but pain, in which, most screams do have. A scream that does not contain anything has to contain pain.' Kuwata realized that tears were falling from Yasuda's eyes when he said all those things.

            'Yeah, and Uekusa could just be acting and fooling around with us for all we know,' Sasaoka said, understanding descending on him. 

            'But then, it may be quite illogical. It's gonna take a hell lot of acting to be able to pull the whole thing off,' Kakuta said. 

            'Weren't you the one who suggested this, sempai?' Kuwata asked.            

            'Yes, I did, but… it just doesn't seem right.'

            'Well, I would say the story they are feeding us sounds even more illogical,' he countered.   

            'Demo… would Ayako really do this? Sakuragi… and even Akagi? What about Rukawa? I don't think he would be interested in acting. And if he was forced… why is he playing such a big role? He could be sleeping and no one would question why!' Sasaoka answered.  

            'Makes sense… and there was also the thing about Saori and that… was it a spider?' Yasuda muttered.

            'It was a cockroach first,' Sasaoka reminded him.

            Rukawa continued checking, no looking at Ishii's body, trying to find for something, in which, right now, was an almost impossible task, considering the fact that he was not even concentrating on what he was seeing. His mind was churning, and he was more than convinced that these weren't just random fights. 

            _Why are they causing problems now?_

            'Urusei Sakuragi!' Mitsui said, pushing the redhead away.

            'Don't disturb us now!'

            'Yare, yare. Some people just don't know their place. Look, who's calling himself tensai?' Kiyota came, provoking Sakuragi, a faint smile plastered onto his lips. But, when Rukawa chanced a glance at him, he saw that Kiyota's smile did not have a stitch of humor in it. That guy was worried sick.

            'Nani? How dare you say…' and the both of them went off quarrelling about who was better, their worries dissolving.

            _That's quite good. It doesn't seem to be in here anymore anyway… but you two better be on you guard anyhow. Rukawa thought, not voicing it out loud, turning his focus to the rest once again._

            _The thing that is worrying me is the fact that I can't trace it anymore… and some people who aren't used to quarrelling are doing so right now!_

_            Rukawa sighed inwardly, hoping against hope there was some logical explanations for this. _

            'Kenji, why? Why did you guys leave us out?' Hanagata asked again, his voice so soft and yet, so bitter. Fujima looked at him, wondering what the hell was so wrong with leaving them out. It's not like they had signed a contract on promising to tell each other everything they found out right away.

            'We weren't sure about it yet. We didn't know whether what we were feeling was true or not. Hell, we didn't even know what we were feeling,' Sendo answered on behalf of all of them.

            'And you just couldn't tell us! You couldn't include people who didn't have the perfect sense of hearing like you do into your discussion,' Koshino attacked suddenly. Sendo turned towards Koshino, totally taken aback at the anger his friend's voice held.

            'It was not a discussion, it was a conformation,' Jin muttered softly. 

            'Conformation of what? At least you could still warn us about the danger we were about to face couldn't you?' Maki asked in a dangerously soft tone.

            Rukawa sighed again, inaudibly. Outside, the rain was still beating down with fury, and here he was, trying to look for something when he wasn't looking for it at all.

            _How can I hear them anyway? They're all practically fifty feet away from me, not to add to the fact that there's thunder and all…_

            That thought only managed to confuse him more, and confirm the belief that they weren't just fighting or quarrelling. Someone… something was behind all of this.

            'Saori? There must be a reasonable explanation for that. Maybe the spider or cockroach or whatever, was mechanical. Maybe they had two mechanical insects. One cockroach, one spider,' Kakuta said, shaking his head. 

            'Then, what about the time when she changed into a gigantic ant?' Kuwata questioned. 

            'Umm… well, maybe that was… Ito. You know, Ito was acting as… Saori and he was wearing a costume. He just took out the Saori costume and ta-da he was an ant. Then um… maybe he was wearing another Saori costume underneath er… the ant one, and… so when he took that out, he became a um… Saori again,' Yasuda said, very slowly. Kakuta stared at him.

            'That's is a very crappy explanation. Can't you come up with something better?' he asked, smiling a little.

            'Gomen… but there must be a reasonable explanation for all these'

            '…'

            'Then what about the other insect? And what about Ishii?' Sasaoka asked.

            'Oh yeah, Ishii…. But wait a minute! The lights went off for a while didn't it? Maybe something happened to him then,' Kuwata answered.

            'Then, the other insects during Saori's little visit?' Yasuda asked.

            'Whatever it is, there must be a rational explanation for all of this! There must be!' Kakuta answered. 

            'Yeah, probably they have lots of mechanical insects,' Sasaoka answered. 

            'There's also the fact that all the others that were attacked were starting members. Ito was a starting member for Shoyo if they were playing against a weak team… if this fact helps at all,' Yasuda muttered.

            'But then, couldn't this all be a coincidence? Why on Earth would they want to um… murder us in the first place?' Kuwata asked. 

            'Yeah… it could be a coincidence,' Kakuta murmured thoughtfully.

            At that point, Rukawa glanced at them all, and he was very sure that none of them believed that this was a coincidence at all.

            _Now what am I supposed to do?_

            The rain was still pouring down outside. Lightning zigzagged down, and thunder clashed rattled the gym windows.

            _The determination is breaking!_

* * * * * * * * 

            I reached the field. The gym was now real near, and yet…

_Lesser…___

_            I could feel less harm and anger emanating from the gym._

_Less determination…_

_            For some reasons or another, instead of leaping with joy, my heart sank, with fear. Fear so great it almost ripped off my self-control._

* * * * * * * * 

            An ant was out there in the field. No, there were millions of ants out there, but this particular ant that had just exited the gym was different… evil.

            It looked at the giant centipede not with fear, but with fury, a weird sense of elation, and a kind of hunger. A hunger, not for food, but for the very feeling of fear emanating from others. It hungered for their cry of help, and thirsted for their cry of defeat. 

            This ant, was a totally different ant, which could see, hear, and _invade. _

* * * * * * * * 

_            Something is about to happen!_

            Rukawa flipped his eyes to the window. At that exact moment, lighting illuminated the field, and… Rukawa nearly fainted.

            Out there in the field, was a giant CENTIPEDE!

            Rukawa gulped in several breaths, trying to not panic, trying to think straight. When he managed to at least get a steady rhythm in his breathing, he thought it over.

            _That giant centipede… that means there's two of them. Two of whatever creatures out there, wanting to kill us for… only God knows why!_

            He looked around, at all of them in the gym. Most of them were just talking, glancing nervously at each other. And yet, the two groups who were in debate and dispute were still doing so. Casting his eyes out, he felt hopeless…

            _How are we going to get out of here alive?_

A/N: I have a feeling that my fic is getting worse than, it used to be... Gomen, gomen… but please continue reading and reviewing. This chapter might have been a little boring, gomen!!! I'm really sorry!! Uh… BTW, I think there are some readers who got confused… the spider and the ant are just modes of transport, just like Ishii was, for the… uh… _thing. I really want to thank all of you for bearing this far with me despite all my mistakes, and do please continue commenting on my fic, and point out all the mistakes… I really hope I'm not boring you guys, and if my chapters are really getting worse, pls tell me… I'll try to change it a little (I have no idea how to…) *sweatdrops*_


	13. Confused

**Title: Terror…**

A/N: Looks like I didn't manage to upload before Christmas… to those who don't know… I was down with chicken pox!! *sobsob*… but I'm still going for camp… 27-30… I know, I'm mad. And to all the Malaysian form 3s, GOOD LUCK!!! Results coming out on Monday, 30th…. Die, die… 

sLL: Yikes!!! Pls, don't stop reading-ne? I'm sorry for making it so…. Complicated, but I;m going to explain stuff as soon as I reach chapter 13/14…half a year early…. Is that possible?

Leviathan: Yup! I love horror flims… *blushes* thanks a lot!!! I hope you continue enjoying, and *grins* continue reviewing. 

Kathleen: Gulp… Miyagi and Ayako… *snickers*

Sakura88: Yeah, am continuing… but getting very worried… results are coming out!!! Help!! Your mom sent you to school a year early? Is it possible? 

Acye Shade: *gulp* praying mantis… ewwww!!!

Lazuli: Awww…*wearing a sadistic smile, if smiles can be sadistic*come on, they're so innocent… *sweatdrops* 

Krappkarmin: Thanks… I know I'm confusing a lot of ppl… I don't know how it turned out this way, but I hope to explain things as soon as I get to chapter 13/14… 

Alexia: Uh… I think… I know it's a little confusing for now, but I'll explain it as soon as I reach say, chapter 13 or 14…

Crazy4u: Yeah, I did, but seriously, it's no big deal…. I'm NOT a genius as some ppl think… and do treat me normally kay?? (anyway, I believe I passed with mere luck, I missed the last 5 questions) they're not that bad… right? Well, some could be that bad… Do you really think I can? Not a bad idea. *goes away dreaming of writing a horror novel that b'came a bestseller* *sweatdrops*

Hisashi Loves Yelen: Thanks…. Well… this chapter isn't that scary either…. Gomen….

**Chapter 12-Confused**

            'Okay, okay. Gomen, we didn't know it'd mean that much to you. Gomen, okay?' Sendo asked, trying to break the tension.

            'What do you mean you didn't know? Come on!' Maki nearly shouted back his reply. Jin flinched, then looked at him with narrowed eyes, trying to contain his anger and suspicion. 

            _Something is wrong here…_

            Jin knew that it was very unlike Maki to simply pick fights. Even if he had a reason to fight, Maki would be the last person to start it. In fact, Jin knew very well that it was strange to associate any of them with those two words: picking fights… that was, with the exception of… maybe… Mitsui-sempai, but still, this was weird.

            An urge to retort back to Maki, something he had never done before, suddenly lashed out on him, and he nearly flowed with that urge, but caught himself in time. Instead, he walked away from the small group, heading towards Rukawa… a Rukawa who looked that he had just dipped himself into a big bucket of whitewash…

            _Now, what else can__ be wrong?_

_            'Jin! Jin! Where are you going? Escaping?' Hanagata asked caustically, loud enough to catch the attention of the rest in the gym. Jin stopped, hesitated, then turned to face Hanagata, slowly, and catching glimpses of worry-clouded faces of the others._

            'There's nothing to escape from. You guys suddenly jumped at us, firing illogical accusations, then refused to accept our apology. What more can we do?' He was going to say more, his urge to fight and create chaos getting the better of him, when he heard Rukawa clear his throat softly, trying to capture his attention, trying to signal a stop to all these nonsense. 

            Jin nodded a little, as if telling Rukawa that that he had received the signal, and then raked his brain for some logical excuse to explain his sudden desire to leave the group. He hadn't wanted to provoke Hanagata and his group of friends to anger… but he couldn't say that now, not with all of them hanging onto his every word.

            'Uh… so I just… thought I would um… help Rukawa out. He seems to be having trouble with Ishii,' he blurted out. Almost every single soul in the gym turned their focus onto Rukawa, who quickly bent his head, as if searching Ishii's body again.

            _Yeah right! Don't try to kid us anymore! You're acting, and we know it!_

            Sendo and Fujima suddenly jerked their heads a little. Jin, who was already beside Rukawa, inhaled sharply. Rukawa, on the other hand, just remained indifferent. 

            _That mind wave was so… strong, and filled with anger. It's as if several people are thinking the exact same thing, hating us for some reason… Why would they? Sendo questioned himself, concentrating, trying his best to find the origin of the strong and… baleful mind wave, while thunder rumbled on overhead. _

            'That Rukawa is up to something… What is he doing? Why is he hovering beside Ishii's body for so long?' Maki muttered, getting two nodded in return. Mitsui just looked over to Rukawa, not wanting to assent to Maki's statement.

            _Rukawa… Mitsui looked away, not saying anything._

            Fujima, on the other hand, who was bristling with anger, bit his lips, trying not to blow up at them.

            'Let's help them,' he muttered to Sendo, who had a _very concentrated look on his face, and was oblivious to Fujima. Fujima frowned. Tapping Sendo impatiently, he pointed towards Rukawa and Jin. Sendo broke out of his trance abruptly, looking at Fujima for five full seconds, trying to comprehend what he was saying, and then nodded._

            Fujima then jogged towards them, leaving a startled Sendo, who apparently hadn't interpreted Fujima's hand signs rightly, behind. As he reached, he heard Jin complaining to Rukawa about Maki and the others.

            'Rukawa-kun, do you know what's going on?' Fujima questioned, right after Jin finished his complaints. Rukawa sighed, and even though he was infuriated, Fujima smiled a little, inwardly.

            _We all have definitely changed a little…_

            'It's ganging them all up, ganging _us all up, trying to make us fight each other, wreaking havoc in here,' he answered softly, hardly audible as the thunder seemed so insistent on swallowing his words. _

            'What on Earth for?' Sendo, who had arrived in time to hear Rukawa's 'explanation' for the so-called quarrel, asked. Rukawa gave him a queer look, and then turned his attention to the gym window. Frowning, filled with curiosity, they followed his suit, looking out to the beautiful landscape of stabbing lightning and green-glistened fields… which, unfortunately was not beautiful anymore_. _

* * * * * * * * 

            Sakuragi looked around uneasily, realizing very acutely that everyone was now in groups, whispering. They looked really _worried, and that was really eating into him._

_            It's as if they don't believe in Kitsune and his friends anymore…_

_            Well, serves them right! Part of him huffed._

            _They don't deserve all the attention in the first place. When they realize that they can't compete with this Tensai, they'll all come to me for help, even that baka Kitsune, and it'll be my show from then on._

            And yet, as his eyes moved around, surveying all the groups, his uneasiness grew. Just watching them whispering, throwing looks behind their backs as if they were scared of eavesdroppers…

            _Who cares? Everybody knows that the baka Kitsune is not compatible enough to handle this. They will come to…_

_            NO! This isn't a game! There's something very wrong in here, and you know it. Whether that Smiley and Kitsune deserves all this attention or not doesn't matter now! We need as many people to stay alive as possible… we need each other… Part of him shouted, cutting away all the immature thoughts about 'Tensai glory'._

            _Demo…_

_            To Sakuragi, everything __was a game, and he was always the winner. As long as Yohei and his companions were there, __life was a game; it was supposed to be fun…_

            'Saru!! Stop looking so helpless!' Kiyota shouted at him, trying to restore the lightness that had disappeared so suddenly. He didn't like the atmosphere that now filled the gym, and he hoped Sakuragi would retort back… fighting with him sometimes released the tension he felt. And Sakuragi did retort, but it was a little different, as if he was doing it without his own realization. 

            'Don't call me monkey you Wild Monkey!' Sakuragi shouted back, his mind wondering, pondering on thoughts he had never in his life ever explored…

            _And sometimes, it's better to leave such thoughts unexplored, he thought bitterly._

            'Urusei! Baka Saru!' Miyagi said. He stood among the Shohoku starters, which only contained Akagi, and of course with them were his beloved 'Aya-chan' and Kogure. 

            'Teme!!!' Sakuragi shouted back, this time, his eyes cleared, and his thoughts evaporated. A second later, a hand smashed down on his head, and he muttered…

            'Gori…'  

            'Bwahahahahaha!' Kiyota screamed in laughter. Miyagi glared at him, only to realize that his efforts were in vain. Trying another approach, he said…

            'That baka was meant for both of you, monkey!' That was a success, as it stopped Kiyota in the midst of his laughter.

            'TEMEE!!!' 

            Ayako smiled a little. She still could feel sorrow and pain nagging at her, pulling her down, but seeing such simple-minded people made a feel a little better… only a little. And yet, she could see, sense that both of them were a little sad at the lost of their friends too. This was just their way of helping out… and it was working, at least for her.

            Mitsui, in another corner of the gym, was staring at the spot where the Shohoku players, no the Shohoku starters were gathered. Part of him wanted to join them, to be part of the laughing group as they teased each other and get on each other's nerves… they looked so happy, so together… 

            His eyes then roamed over to where the Shohoku substitutes were huddled, and were shocked to see… the anger in them, in their eyes… but their anger completely slipped when he turned his attention back to Sakuragi and Kiyota, who were in the midst of tearing Miyagi up.

            'Mitsui… what do you think?' Maki suddenly asked. Mitsui jerked a little, quickly brining his focus to the other three in the group, who were scheming, evil glints in their eyes. 

            'Uh…yeah, sure,' he muttered, though he had no idea just what he had agreed to. They just smiled, but that same smile disappeared as soon they laid their eyes upon Sakuragi and the rest.

            'Baka! A bunch of noisy monkeys!' Koshino muttered, receiving affirmative nodes from Hanagata and Maki. A frown cross Mitsui's delicate features… 

            _Why am I doing this anyway? I should be there, with them all…_

_            Part of him tried to dismiss that thought, but another part, the part he was more familiar with, refused to cooperate. It pushed him to join them. Friends always come first, that was what he had learnt in his gang…_

            _Your old friends… your familiar friends.___

_            Both parts of him fought, not willing to relent, leaving him confused._

            _Why am I doing this?_

* * * * * * * * 

            'What the hell is _THAT?' Sendo whispered, his eyes glued onto the humongous shape, out there. Lightning throbbed overhead, illuminating the thing a few times, only for a few seconds each time. Unconsciously, he heard Rukawa mutter, 'Do'ahou, it's a centipede,' in his monotonous voice. _

            'It's so… big…'  he whispered in awe. It filled the WHOLE field, and yet, Sendo could not see its end. Moonlight gleamed on its skin, giving it a hard, cold…

_…eerie…_

            glare. 

            _Eerie is so right, Sendo thought, his mind whirling. Just being able to see a centipede, to see its huge body __segments freaked him out._

            'It's the insects isn't it? It's so…' he had meant to say big, but decided against it. It was more than big, it was gigantic, obviously much bigger than he had thought it was. Heck! It was much bigger than he ever imagined it could be. 

            'So… uh… what are we going to do?' Jin asked, knowing that it was a stupid question, but asking it anyway. At that exact moment, Sakuragi shouted 'TEME!' and they all turned towards the source of voice, and watched the scene, nervous smiles drawn on their lips.

            'He may be our last chance,' Rukawa muttered.

* * * * * * * *

            'They are acting… it's so obvious!' Sasaoka muttered. He glimpsed bobbing heads beside him, but his attention was focused on the seniors and Sakuragi. And all of as sudden, a ware of fury burst forth from deep within him. A fury so intense that it even shocked him.

            _How could they?!! We're their teammates!!!! His mind shouted indignantly._

            But what he didn't understand was why Sakuragi was in this too. Sakuragi always struck him as a noisy, carefree, innocent, but loyal guy. A guy who would put priority in his teammates instead of… whatever they were planning… teammates, that is, with the exception of Rukawa… but.

            His intense thoughts were cut off by the group of Shoyo players, who were grouped up beside them, a few meters away.

            'Urusei-na!' Hasegawa muttered, looking at Sakuragi with distaste. His two friends, Nagano and Takano were staring at them with disdain too, and yet… yet, Hasegawa knew, deep down, he wanted to be with them, to be accepted together. 

            Unconsciously, Hasegawa balled his hands into fists.

* * * * * * * * 

            I was still standing there, rain falling lightly on me. I didn't move a muscle, but just waited patiently. I knew they saw me, I felt it deep down in my gut, but…

_Rukawa Kaede…_

_You're irritating, but you're just a small fry, and you won't triumph._

            And yet, I was getting restless. Condemning them as small fry… not even knowing who… what was the big one… 

_Where is it??_

* * * * * * * * 

            The moon glimmered in the dark sky above. In the field, that one particular ant smiled inwardly. It _had been caught off-guard by Shohoku's sudden burst off… teamwork, but then, it was still going according to plan. There are plenty who still weren't willing to cooperate._

_Rukawa... you are a little dangerous… but, sorry for you, the show is still going to roll…_

            The tiny ant looked at the enormous centipede, amusement written all over its tiny face. And with it, was menace. 

            There was a patch around it, which happened to be free of any insects whatsoever… free from any _living creature with the exception of greenery. _

            And still, it stood there, waiting with animated anticipation, a plan written clear in its mind. It knew exactly what to do. It was just waiting for the correct time.

_You are all so easy to trick. Everything is going as I planned._

            It still continues staring at the enormous centipede, a malicious smile on its face…

 _Just wait patiently, darling. You may be next…_

A/N: Well, how was it? I hope I didn't confuse you all further. I'll try to explain stuff be chapter 13/14…. BTW, to those who have been reading Malice in Darkness, I'm really sorry, but I have to suspend that fic for a while…. I just can't continue for the time being…. Well then, see ya!!!


	14. The Beginning of A New Terror

**Title: Terror…**

A/N: Hey!!! Aren't I a little faster???? Well, I couldn't really wait, so…. To all the Malaysian's…. can't believe that school is starting again… *cries* 

sLL: Uh… I hope you can pick out who's good and bad here…. Uh… continue reading PLS!!!!!

Leviathan: Yeah, you are the first one to review chapter 12… Thanks… and there's nothing weird about being scared of insect's body segments… *shudders*

Kathleen: Away? That's cool, actually, I'm going 4 a retreat in just half an hour… and I did post this up a little faster right? 

Chidero: Hey!! Really??? I always get my mom screaming on my back when I don't come off-line. Thanks a lot for the compliment….

Blueblade: hey!! Thanks for reviewing…. Hehehe… the ant *looks evil* is going to play a GREAT part in this chapter…

Alexia: Suspense? *sweatdrops* oh… I'm from Malaysia, just like nothingtodo and sLL, and my parents speak English with me at home… what about you?

Miracle: Really? You could finish it in one go? That's cool!!! Thanks a lot!!!

Crazy4u: oh…. I hope this chapter will explain a little bit… it's real easy 2 treat me normally. It's just that a lot ppl think that PTS girls r so great and start treating us like a genius… something I really HATE… happy going back 2 school too, though I'm not really looking forward to it… oh, BTW, CONGRETS!!! You are the 100th reviewer!!!!! I was really hoping that I would be able to get a hundred reviews for my story… thanks a lot!

Murderer: Really? Your friend did recommend it to you? *tears of joy floods down* arigato!!!! Thank you so much for reviewing…. Tell your friend thanks too!!!!

Kaederukawa kill: *grins* as I'm proud to say, I did upload this quicker then I thought I would…. My vacation is going to be over, and I won't be able to upload as much soon….

**Chapter 13- The Beginning of A New Terror**

            'Uh…Why exactly do I feel like that's not the only thing that might harm us?' Sendo asked, his eyes now back to the window. Anxiety was written on his face.

            'I think that's because Ishii wasn't killed by that…centipede. It felt like…it was something else…and I have a feeling that _that something else is no insect,' Fujima muttered, while beside him, Jin nodded in grim agreement._

            'But…there _must be a sign…something…__anything that shows that Ishii is dead,' Rukawa murmured, too deep in thoughts to even be delicate._

            'Well, he's not breathing,' Sendo said softly, his eyes never leaving the window.

            'Anyway, it's not like you were looking properly.' Jin tried to encourage Rukawa, 'Maybe you missed something? There's always a possibility. Too many things have been happening anyway.'

            'Yeah… but somehow, I have a feeling that it doesn't matter,' Fujima said.

            'Huh?'

            'It _doesn't matter. Ishii is not going to be able to be of any help to us, whether or not there are signs showing that he has...' Fujima left his sentence hanging, not able to finish it himself._

* * * * * * * * 

            _Now, what's wrong? Mitsui asked himself, his eyes going wild. Around him, the three were still busy scheming… but… his heart… _

            His heart was _racing._

            _Something… is not RIGHT!!_

            His eyes swept the gym carefully, watching every single group clicking together, and for no reason, felt goose bumps crawling up his skin.

            _What on Earth is going on?_

* * * * * * * * 

            'How do we tell them that we have seen through their tricks and that we want them to stop?' Kakuta asked in a whisper.

            'Well we _could somehow tell them that we have seen through their tricks, but we __can't tell them that we want them to stop. You have purposely missed out a vital point there. It's like ten to one out there,' Yasuda muttered, and beside him, Kuwata's face became pale, as if all the blood had been sucked clean out of his face. _

            'Uh… have we no hope then?' Kuwata asked, perspiring lightly, even though the weather was so… cold.

            _It's so…cold… hostile…. _

            Kuwata clenched his hands into fists.

            _Why do I feel… weird? Are we on the wrong track? Why do my surroundings feel so… differently cool?_

_            Breathing heavily, oblivious to the suggestions that Sasaoka was currently making, Kuwata tried to ignore his own questions, feelings… _

_Doubt. _

* * * * * * * * 

            'Mitsui! What do you think?' Maki asked, a little irritated at Mitsui's attitude. Something about the way he was acting disturbed Maki terribly. He was so…indifferent, and his thoughts were obviously somewhere _else._

            Hanagata shot out a hand, shaking Mitsui. Mitsui literally jumped out of his trance, looking really surprised and a little worried.

            'Nani?' he asked in his innocent boyish tone. 

            'We asked…' 

            However, Mitsui cut Hanagata short by suddenly whispering, 'What the…'

            Intuitively, Mitsui had turned his gaze to the gym window, which was slightly to the left of Hanagata, and was now swearing and muttering incoherently.

            'Mitsui…' This time it was Koshino. However he too, was stopped, stopped by another voice, a voice of… something that, presently, was invisible to all of them.

            _'You're a weak race, you know that, you incompetent humans?' _

            The whole gym turned ghostly silent. Even Sakuragi was out of words, his normally expressive face pale due to his terror.

            _'Hah! You manipulative race! What can you do now, huh?' _

_            'How does it feel to be manipulated in turn?'_

            At the word manipulated, everyone came to their senses. Everyone, that is excluding those who had_ not been manipulated. The Shohoku substitutes were hit by a tremendously heavy, and sudden knowledge that they had been stupid and weak. So weak that they had fallen directly into… the trap._

            'Manipulative… manipulated? Kuso!' Hanagata cursed under his breath, as if those two words had lifted a spell that had been cast onto him-a hypnotic spell.

_            'Now, you incomplete, helpless beings! Feel hurt! Feel the helplessness that you've time and time again caused others. You've always thought you were great just because no one ever rose against you, well guess what? You're just as helpless as those you've hurt. Animals, insects… you're worst and much more useless than any of them. Now. I__ rise against you! watch me! Try me, and let me have the uncomprehending joy of hearing your cry of defeat!' _

            As if on cue, all heads turned towards _the window of Shoyo gym. The window that looked out to the field, and saw it…_

* * * * * * * * 

            _NO! Damn it! No!_

            Mitsui tried to fight the compelling urge to look out that particular window, _again. For some reason, he knew that he should not look out the window.  _

            _No! That's what it __wants! Don't do it! He screamed again and again, in his head, absently registering that everyone was looking to __that window…_

            _Even Rukawa…_

            Mitsui fought the terrible obligatory urge to turn as well, clenching and unclenching his fists at the same time, almost biting off his tongue in the process. In the end, the urge withdrew, leaving Mitsui smiling broadly. 

            _I've won!_

            Slowly, boldly, he lifted his gaze to _the window, monitoring his own actions carefully, making sure that he had __all his actions under control. As the whole picture came into view, he was jolted mentally, nearly losing his self-grip, almost allowing his mind to float away with the current, disarraying his thoughts. _

            _What is that?_

            Contrary to his first gaze at the window, the thing that caught his attention now, was almost like the exact opposite, especially in size, to the thing that had made him swear under his breath when Hanagata was talking. 

            _What. The. Hell???_

_            The ant looked totally __normal, physically…_

            _It's floating for goodness sakes!!!! It's floating in the midair right in the middle of a circle of light which… seems to be emitted from it's own body!!!_

            The only light in a cloud of blackness, malice… and the ant seemed to be _suffering in that darkness that engulfed it…_

            _That darkness… malevolence… that thing murdered Ishii… it killed the innocent freshman!!_

            The terror… the sure knowledge…

            It was overrode by a strong wave of unbidden anger that lashed out from deep within Mitsui. 

            _My friends, someone I care for…._

            The anger made black dots appear in front of Mitsui's eyes, blurring his vision. Through those imaginary black dots, he saw the poor ant bursting, and the light, the inexplicable source of light, vanishing. 

            _Ishii was always there, cheering for us, helping us, and like the rest, played a huge role… backstage…_

            Lightning enhanced the whole field, lighting up the centipede considerably, but somehow, the darkness, that patch of darkness that had somehow seemed to engulf the ant when it was circled by the light, still remained there. 

            Rain continued tearing down on the field giving it a glassy, unreal look.

            And then, before their very eyes, the prominent patch of darkness moved…

            _God help us all! It moved!!!_

_            … towards the centipede._

            Understanding unfolded itself, and landed, smothering Mitsui. 

* * * * * * * * 

_What the hell?_

            I was astounded at the sudden rising of that tiny and so, reasons unknown, annoyingly _normal and… and not to mention that light… that inexplicable light._

_Run, idiot! Run!_

            But I couldn't. I couldn't move. Fear, fear so vast and intense, had driven thousands of screws into those million legs I had. 

_Baka__! Move!_

            But still, I stood there, watching, transfixed at the sight of the blackness that… _seeped out from the ant. I knew… felt that it would harm me, I was terrified by it, and yet, I just watch in disbelieve._

_What…?_

            I stood there for minutes that seemed like eternity, watching the ant, until suddenly, it burst, sending small droplets showering a small part of the field. 

_Run! Go! Baka! Move before it's too late!!!_

            I knew I had to, but…

_Too late for what?___

_            … all I could do was stare, and receive countless unanswerable questions from other parts of me. The parts who thought I was immortal, the parts that knew no fear… until today._

_God… God, please, help me…_

_            The darkness now moved towards me. And after a while, it entered me. __Entered._

_God… _

_Too… late….___

* * * * * * * * 

            Another round of gasps could be heard in the gym. The column of darkness was now entering the centipede, something that Mitsui had thought would happen as soon as the darkness started uh…_ moving._

            'All the while… there was two all the while…' Rukawa muttered, mesmerized at the sight, at the mere knowledge, although he had known it all the while, deep down… it still shocked him.

            Though his voice was soft, it went through the whole gym, intensifying all their fears. Here they were, cracking their head trying to defeat _one err…__ monster, having all but success in doing so, another one springs out of nowhere, decided it was funny and entertaining to kill them, thus attempted to join in the fun…_

_            Great! Just damn GREAT!! Fujima wrung his hands together, fighting the urge to scream._

            'And now, they're combining… damn! They're _combining!!!' Sendo's voice wavered, tethering on the edge of a bottomless pit of terror. _

            'No, not combining. The other is scared of it… the darkness, or whatever it is, is _using the centipede,' Rukawa muttered absently. After a moment, he added, 'I can feel its terror._

            _Oh, how nice, Mitsui thought, watching, as the centipede, that now was shrouded by nothing else save the darkness of the night, inched closer towards the gym. _

            _I happen to feel the same way…_

            _'As you can all see, I have two ways of changing my mode of transport, or… using different people if you like that phrase better,' the voice said in a dangerously indifferent tone. _

            _'I managed it invisibly in Ishii's case, but you all saw me in this case… and now, dust of the world, try your luck!'_

_            It was still inching closer. Sendo, Fujima, Jin and even Rukawa froze, not knowing what to do, and how to react. _

Fifteen feet… 

            Still, all Rukawa could do was watch.

Ten feet…. 

            Coming closer   

Five feet…

Three feet…

            Something in Mitsui's mind snapped. 

Two feet…

            From the opposite end of the gym, Mitsui ran towards the door, drawing slight gasps from the rest.

One foot…

            Panting, he continued running, and finally he reached it.

**            The door was swept open.**

            'NO!' Mitsui shouted. A giant centipede greeted him.         

A/N: Don't kill me…. I had to do something…. Now, now, I may NOT have to kill Mitsui, may not only…. Well, hope you liked this chapter…. *grins* uh…. *sees the reviewers running with knifes* yikes!! *runs and hides*


	15. Why?

**Title: Terror…**

A/N: Hey again…. Looks like lots of reviewers are after my bloo. *ducks an arrow* well, I'm really sorry, but I couldn't help it!! *grins evilly* anyway, what's a horror story without deaths? Well, enjoy this chapter, and school too!!!

sLL: *Grins sheepishly…. I dunno…. Anyway, two ppl have said that my fic is weird… anyhow, how's school?

Elier: Do you watch a lot of gory movies?... tame?? U're scary…. *slaps her forehead* oh, yeah, I was in a hurry then, so now I'm mentioning it. Eliar Swithfire, Sakura88, slamdunker88, miracle, crazy4u, tehtarik and maniaclecraze88 are also from Malaysia… I hope I didn't leave anyone out??  Thanks for the compliment.

Kathleen: Away? That's cool, actually, I'm going 4 a retreat in just half an hour… and I did post this up a little faster right? 

Chidero: Wow… can't believe you said that. You're like the only one who said that you want Mitsui to be killed. Hurry it up?? I dunno, I'll try, (I hope)

Sakura88: you went to KOREA? Wow!! Cool!! Yeah school started…. Yuck! Which subject did you miss? I had straight As… something I didn't actually expect…

Acye Shade: err… it does?

Alexia: Language, my child… (uckk, I sound like some grandmother)  Thanks a LOT for your compliment… BTW, I do know where Sweden is… but I doubt a lot of ppl know where Malaysia is…

J2ain: Nah, it's okay…. Hisashi-chan? I dunno…. I don't want him to die either, but if he doesn't, there'll be fun right? Uh… *runs from screaming reviewers* 

Miracle: Yup, you're the first one to review chapter 13… you're Malaysian? Hehe, good luck 2 you in PMR…. *sobs* I'm a senior now… I can't believe it… ei, u fourteen ah? So am i…. Which part of Malaysia do u stay in?

Crazy4u: Bombs? Yikes…. My reviewers r all killin me… oh, I got 7As, I took only 7 subjects… Wish ur pet-bro congrets from me will ya? (though I don't know him, but… who cares?

Kathleen: Nah, I'm not going anywhere, though I did go for a few camps organized by youth group… Where did u go??

Hederus: *grins* thanks a bunch!

Akira: *gulp* Err… yeah… *runs to a mental hospital with Akira still chasing Frozenfemale* uh… I need help here… uh, no, I meant he needs help here!!

**Chapter 14- Why?**

            Ripples of whispers passed through the gym. 

            'Sempai…!'

            'Mitsui…!' 

            'What the hell?!!'

            'Mitchy!'

            The centipede stood right in front of Mitsui, _towering over__  him. Mitsui, his hands spread wide open as if to protect the contents of the gym, gulped at the sight of the hairy legs in front of him. _

            _So… damn…__ BIG!!_

            Now that he was confronting the giant centipede, it looked more terrifying than ever and Mitsui could feel its scorn. By just standing there it was mocking them all. 

The silver eye of the moon stared down, mockingly too, at all the poor occupants in the gym who were lost and terrified… 

            Mitsui shivered. 

            'It's not scared. It's not at all worried by Mitsui's determination, though it was unexpected, the _thing does not give a damn. It's just shock… that's all,' Rukawa mumbled unintelligibly. His words did not travel that far, but it did more than enough damage to those within ear-shot. _

            Ayako started sobbing. Several others had tears streaming down their face too. But whether it was fear for Mitsui or the feeling of total and utter helplessness that made them cry, Rukawa had no idea, and did not, at the moment, care at all.

            'Mitsui…! Baka--,' Akagi muttered softly. Hasegawa, on the other hand, just stared at the, to him, 'the boy who had abandoned basketball'… and 'who had no right at all to be in a basketball court', in shock.

            Lightning pulsed in the skies above, dizzying them with its sudden appearance and disappearance. 

            _'You need help?' a mockingly evil voice pierced through the rumbling thunder, and all the sobs and whisperings. Sakuragi felt a spark of anger at its words. He hated it when someone made fun of him, his army or gundam, as they called themselves… _

            And that included his team.

            Mitsui, on the other hand, determined not to show his fear, put on a cool façade. However, his trembling voice betrayed him.

            'What do you want from us? Why on Earth do you want to kill us? What is it to you?' There was quite a long pause, before he received the answer, which shook him mentally.

            _'Apologies!' it screamed back.__ 'That's what we want from you!'_

            His tone became more of shock. 'Apologies? What have we ever done to you?' As far as _he was concerned, he had not done anything wrong…at least, not anything that was earth-shaking to them… _

            _Insects??__ What the hell are they in the first place? They might not even be insects, and how exactly am I suppose to know what I have done to them?_

            _'All the basketballs in the world… they must have been enough to kill millions of insects every year,' This statement was __dripping with sarcasm and followed by a laughter so malicious and evil, that even Sendo and Jin cringed a little._

            'TEME!!! You….' Sakuragi started off, eyes flashing angrily, as he took steps towards the centipede. However, Miyagi stopped him in his mid-strides. 

            'Let me go, shorty!! Let me GO!' Sakuragi thrashed against Ryota's firm grip. 'That baka had just INSULTED us. Let me GO!!' Ryota, however, held on tightly, not yielding.

            'What can you do?' he asked softly, making Sakuragi pause at the tone of his voice. 

            Near them, another teenager was also losing his temper. Rukawa straightened up to his full height, as if picking a fight.

            'Oi.' He called out roughly. Fujima quickly put a hand onto his arm, trying his best to cool Rukawa down, something that was almost utterly useless.

            More laughter from the centipede, who was obviously amused at the two Shohoku freshmen. 

            Mitsui, feeling insulted, looked up, for the first time, intending to challenge it… and gulped once more. The mere sight of the centipede nearly sent him cowering. It did manage to send a quiver of fear though him, knotting his muscles together, but he kept his gaze fixed on it, swallowing nervously every other second. 

            'Seriously,' he started off in a perfectly conversational tone, hiding his fear and terror, 'What the hell do you want from us?' 

            All he got back was a malevolent, guttural giggle, which on second thought, couldn't be classified as a giggle at all.

            'Come ON!' Mitsui said, impatience biting into his voice. The giggling stopped at once, and in a serious voice,

            _'Bow down on you knees and beg, and I'll think about it.'_

            'Sempai…' Sasaoka muttered, he himself getting angry. 

            'Damn it!!' Kiyota said aloud, his brows knitting in fury. 'What the hell does he think we are?!'

            _Just because we're in its grip.__ It's toying around with out feelings, terror… and pride. Maki swore in his heart. _

            The centipede reared its unsightly head and surveyed the gym.

            'Do'aho.' Rukawa muttered, his anger blurring his words.

            _'I take it that you egoistic thrash don't want to know?' _

            'TEME!!!" Sakuragi screamed, feeling Ryota's grip on him tighten.

            'WHAT DID YOU SAY??!!!' Kiyota too, was on the verge of running to it. Akagi, feeling that he should do something too, held him back, with hands that were trembling in anger. 

            Rukawa's eyes flashed, as he took a step towards it, feeling Jin's hand suddenly landing on him too, trying his best to stop him.

            'I'll get you for this!' Koshino spluttered out.

            'Urusei, minna!' Mitsui's voice was calm and the pitch of his voice itself shut them all up.

            'Mitchy…' 

            'Urusei, baka saru!' Mitsui muttered.

            He got onto his knees, and bowing down, he begged.

            'Onegai, we want to know why on Earth do you want to kill us.' 

            'Mitsui…' Ryota, out of shock had let Sakuragi go. The rest too, were staring at him in total shock. 

            An evil cackle rang through the gym. All of them, feeling anger rise uncontrollably, turned to… it. All, that is, except for a calm Mitsui, and a Sendo, who was curious… not about the thing, not about Mitsui's action, but his calm composure. Sendo felt that he had something up on his sleeve, and was on his guard. 

            The centipede's body was vibrating, as if it was laughing at them uncontrollably. 

_            'Oh, my… you guys are more stupid than I ever thought you were…' it managed between splutters of laughter. __'Nothing!__ Why on Earth do I need a reason to want to kill you?' _

            With lightning speed, it struck. The move was so sudden that all of them could do nothing but watch and scream. 

            'Sempai!' Ayako's voice pierced the gym, and it was soon joined by other screams, calling Mitsui's name. Sendo took a deep breath, trying not to panic. 

            'The one who's stupid is you.' 

            The whole gym turned ghostly quiet. 

            Lightning burst forth, sending blinding light into the gym. And Sendo felt a small flash of understanding descending. 

A/N: Poor Mitusi-ne? wait, he hasn't actually dies yet, not to worry… so, how do you find this chapter? Do review and tell me k?


	16. A Sacrifice

**Title: Terror…**

A/N: Really sorry for the late update!!! I'm sooooo sorry…. I have too many stuff lar…. Well, here's chapter 15, hope you like it…. oh, BTW, some ppl have been saying that Malaysia is well-known… is it though? If u ask me… and most of my Malaysian frens… they'll say Sweden is more well know…. What do u all think???? Maybe I'm just blur… *grins* I always am…

Eliar: u're real scary…. I HATE gory stuff…. I'm REAL sorry… I really do'thave much time to read…. Gomen, gomen, I'll try to read it ok? Now Form 4 lar…. Like everything is coming down…. So MANY things to do… and my tak bertangungjawab way is not helping…. I'm losing all my stuff!!! HELP!!!

Chidero: Ha!!! Now, u dunno whether Mitsui should be killed. Well, let's hi-five, I don't like centipeds either…. You'll know what happens next!!

Sakura88: *Runs away from her parang* err… well… read on…

Alexia: U understand already right? I did explain 2 u about who said what right? Heh… Malaysia, well known? I knew Singapore was well-known

Wintery evolution: *grins* thanks…. Are you going to kill me for putting Hisashi-chan in danger too?

Miracle: I'm 15 tis year too!!! When were you born? Me staying in Seremban, studying in Puteri… someone just started writing about my school!!!

Anduril: I LOVE LOTR too!!!! I love J.R Tolkien… he's soooooo cool!!!!!! U like Rukawa MAD? *stares* u… weird…. Hahahaha!

Leviathan: Thanks…. It was short? Well, this is a little longer…. *grins* but I don't think you'll be liking this chapter much… don't worry though, me won't kill Rukawa…. Not so fast at least… but I want him t stay till the end…

Teh tarik: nah, it's ok… yup, I'm from Malaysia… Seremban… you? Your fic is good too…

Crazy4u: I hate cliffhangers too, but I like writing it!!! yup, me taking Science. Hey, chill, enjoy ur Form 2, u know, when I was in form 3, I never did any of my Maths homework…. And some others too…. Enjoy urself while u still can!

Akira: YIKES!!! Uh… calm down- ne… a..aki…akira-san….. he hasn't died yet, right? But… well… this chapter…. I dunno lar… read on!!! PS. Don't kill me!!! I wanna continue my fics!!!! N' read others too!!!

**Chapter 15-A Sacrifice**

            'The only one who's stupid is you,' Mitsui reiterated, his face, pale. He was losing a lot of blood, judging by the amount of blood that pooled at his feet. Mitsui's right hand was held up to his left arm… where there was no arm at all… 

            'Mitsui-SEMPAI!' Ayako screamed, shock and terror, mingling together in her, and she didn't like it one bit. 

            'Sempai,' Rukawa muttered, staring at Mitsui, who had his left arm totally ripped off. The sleeve where his arm had been was now soaked in red, and that patch magnifying quickly. His beautiful and flawless features were contorted with pain… and a small sardonic smile. Beads of sweat trickled down his cheeks. 

_            How the hell did it rip off his arm without even tearing his short sleeve shirt?_ Rukawa questioned himself.

            'Baka! Don't think you know everything!'

            '_Nani?_' The centipede was glaring down at Mitsui, looking as menacing as ever, but Sendo detected a little uncertainty in its voice, and he felt that even if Mitsui were to… die, he had fulfilled what he wanted to do. 

            'I knew, I'm not stupid, you know. I knew from the start that you wouldn't tell me anything. I knew that you'd most probably have no reason for attacking us, but I had another plan on my mind,' Mitsui managed a grin, through his pain. The centipede just stared, and as there were no features to look at, they couldn't tell what he was thinking or feeling.

            'Aren't you going to ask me anything?' The centipede stiffened, seeming not to enjoy the "entertainment" that he had asked for. 

            'It doesn't like being teased,' Sendo murmured smiling, as the centipede prepared to strike Mitsui yet again, unmindful of the gasps that went around the gym.

            'Matte! Don't tell me you don't want to know why Mitsui did that? Mitsui is smart, you know, and if you just let go of your err… what do you call it… um… _pride_ a little, you may be able plan on how to fight us off a little,' Sendo taunted it. It shifted its attention to Sendo. Sendo heard a few people sigh thankfully, out loud.

            '_Plan for what? Plan how to escape from you filthy human beings?'_

            'Yup! Come on, or it won't be fun. We have a great plan. Don't tell me you'll fight us without one? I thought you were a sucker for fun… or maybe you're scared, and you _don't_ want to plan, nor hear ours, because you know that you'll lose no matter what. I see,' Sendo said, pretending to be thoughtful. That was the last straw for it, it snarled, shocking a lot of them, and turned back to Mitsui.

            '_What the hell is your plan?!'_

            'Can a centipede snarl?' Fujima asked, looking totally shocked. Sendo just smiled, his attention on Mitsui, who gave him a grateful glace before starting on his explanation. 

            'A centipede can't talk either,' Rukawa said, he too, turning to Mitsui. 

            'Oh,' Fujima muttered, 'That never crossed my mind.' He ran a hand through his hair nervously. 

            'Hey, guys listen up. We need to know Mitsui's plan. That's the only way to not waste his death and to get us all out of here alive,' Sendo said. Just as he finished, he heard a mutters around him, and realized a little too late that he shouldn't have said the word death…

            'What the hell do you mean by…'

            'Sendo! How could you…'

            'He's NOT going to die!' 

            'SHHHHH!' Sendo said, pointing towards Mitsui.

            'Okay, look; the first and most important thing I've learnt from my gang was loyalty to friends. We must not let a friend down even if it requires a sacrifice from…'

            '_Get on with your idiotic explanation you idiot! Don't try to lengthen your time!' _

            'Shut up, and listen why don't you? You have too much ego, thinking you're so great. If you'd just listen, you might learn something new!' Mitsui scolded, sounding a tad bit comical, judging the situation.  

            'Okay, let me continue. I've learnt how to sacrifice to help a friend, and I'm doing so right now. And in this particular situation, I had a plan, which was to unite them. That would have managed to get you out of the gym, wouldn't it? But the point was, I couldn't. I was useless, staying alive, unless I could unite them. And now, you have helped me. You have provoked them to anger, and thus made them think the same thoughts. In other words, you made them one, and well, need I continue? ' The centipede just stared down at them, hardly comprehending, but some others, Rukawa and Sakuragi just to name a few, got the gist of it. 

            'They-are-one-now,' Mitsui said slowly.

            'My, you're pretty dumb, considering what you have boasted about. Do you need me to spell it out for you?' Mitsui ridiculed it. 

Suddenly, the centipede attacked, again, without any warnings what so ever. Rukawa closed his eyes, letting Mitsui's howl of pain ring in his ears. He cringed, and tried not to let his tears flow. The scream didn't last long, and when it stopped, he snapped his eyes open, beholding a strange sight onto him… nothing. 

There was no blood, no Mitsui… nothing, except the centipede. 

_Again, there's no proof at all that they died, at least for those who died today … I dunno if Mutoh's death had any proof... wait, I thing Maki-sempai did say something about a mutilated body. Rukawa stole a look at Ishii's body that lay at one side of the gym peacefully, as if nothing had happened. _

Slowly, shouts of hurt and sorrow rose from the gym. And with it, shouts of anger. And amidst those sorrowful cries, laughter erupted. Wicked, and scorning. 

'Mitsui-sempai,' Ayako whispered, failing to hold back her tears.

'MITCHY!' A much stronger voice boomed. Sakuragi stared at the centipede, fire in its eyes… and Rukawa himself felt anger pouring out of him. Anger…and hatred, for that thing that had been killing all of them.

Lightning lit up the sky in a dazzling flash. Suddenly the centipede felt vulnerable in the gym. It was as if his plan wasn't working. Could he really be pushed out of the gym by their teamwork? 

The mocking laughter died off, as the centipede looked around. 

Rukawa balled his hands into fists, as he stepped forward. He had enough of this stupid idiot who was or had been laughing away. He would get it! Get it to repay all its debt.

'Rukawa…' Sendo stared at the boy, the determined boy who had stepped in front to confront it. He was not the only one staring at Rukawa; most of them were already looking at him. Sakuragi ran out, flanking him, and Ryota, Kiyota and a few others followed, making a line opposite the centipede. 

Sendo looked at Jin and Fujima, and saw that they felt the same way he did. _Unsettled. It was not supposed to be like that. They weren't supposed to blindly fight it. Mitsui had not meant for it to be like that. And… this was important. This was their only chance…_

_Should I? But what if I break their fire, their anger?_

'Minna-san, this idiot killed all our friends, let's get it!' Sakuragi shouted. Thousands of cheers and roars of affirmative followed his shout. 

_Is it scared? Is this what it had expected? Can it fight against us? _

Intuitively, Sendo ran out in front of all of them, and stood there, as if separating them, stopping both sides attack. 

'We can't act rashly just based on our anger and hurt, that would blur our movements, okay? We don't want to waste Mitsui-sempai's death away right? So let's just get us under control first!' After a few seconds, he continued, 'now, let's give this idiot a kick in his ass and get him out!' Sendo shouted. He heard the centipede take in a deep breath. It had not been ready for _this._

_Humans rarely think before acting, that was their weak point, and now that idiot smiley had spoilt it. _

There was a moment of silence, and then,

'HAI!' The centipede started backing off then, a little startled at how well Sendo's effort had turned out. Sendo, seizing the chance, started advancing slowly, hoping that the others behind him were doing the same. 

'_You useless race are standing up against me?' This time the doubt in its voice was clear. _

'Yup, we may be a useless race… useless beings, but at least we know that we have a purpose in out life, and we strife to fulfill that purpose. And the first step to do that is to survive,' Sendo contradicted, challenging it. By now, all of them were advancing against it, Fujima and Jin beside Sendo. 

'_Like gimme a break!' it was losing the battle and its temper, and it knew that. _

'_Get lost!' The centipede's voice wavered, but it stopped backing a way, looking right back at all of them who were still coming for him. And instead of the fear that he meant to see in them, he only saw unity. _

'Yeah, but you're blocking the doorway, and there's no way for us to get lost. Why don't you get your filthy but out of the way… or even better, why don't you get your whole filthy body away from this sacred gym instead?' The centipede was stunned speechless. 

'Get out of here,' Sendo chanted, and the centipede took a step back without realizing so. 

'_Urusei__!'___

'Get outta here, get outta here…' more and more voices joined in the chant. Even Ayako, who was still sobbing, rose up and chanted along, sniffing occasionally. 

Thunder clashed overhead, drowning the chant, and at the same time, Sendo took another step forward. 

Rain lashed down heavily, shrouding the fields outside. The dark sky throbbed with lightning, and finally, the centipede backed away, quickening its pace.

* * * * * * * *

            Sendo slammed the door close. 

            'Mit-chan…' The toughness, togetherness and courage they had mustered against it was now all crumbling to the ground. Sendo sighed. Including Mutoh, Mitsui was the fifth person it had killed. 

            'Kami-sama, what the heck is going on?' Sendo muttered, eyeing every sobbing person, every threshing hand, feeling the hurt blossoming in him. The hurt he was not allowed to feel just now, the pain that hit him really hard only now. 

            _What's going on?_

            'Come on minna-san. We shouldn't cry for Mitsui-sempai. We should have hope in our survival!' Kiyota shouted, trying his best to revive everyone. 

            'Kiyota, what hope _do_ we have?' Uekusa asked trembling. 

            Sendo took a deep breath. 

            _What hope do we have? He flicked his eyes over to Rukawa, who was staring at him… no at something a little to the left of him. _

            _What? Is there something on my feet? Sendo thought without humor as he turned. He saw tat once, he little something that Rukawa was staring at. The little black something… Sendo went silent, questioning himself if it was possible to see what he was seeing. _

            A tear fell from his eyes. 

            'Mitsui-sempai…' Sendo breathed out. He hadn't been close with him, they had hardly ever exchanged words in fact, but his very existence had meant something to Sendo. His presence had affected Sendo at one point or another, and he felt the agonizing sadness envelope him once again. 

            Without anyone's, save Rukawa's notice, Sendo walked over the small black thing that was lying on the floor. He picked it up and he looked at it closely.

_10:28 PM  _

A/N: 'Uh… Uh… Frozenfemale? Calling for Frozenfemale?' *picks up a letter* 'Oh, MY! I'm really sorry to bring this bad news to all of you readers…. But *sob* Frozenfemale was found dead not long ago…. There were tools, suspected to be of her death around her…. There was a parang *looks at Sakura88 suspiciously* a murusame *glances at Akira suspiciously*… oh, my, and it says that all of you were there!!! POLICE!!!!!!!!!!!'

Frozenfemale watches from her hideout…. *grins* that mannequin well…. 


	17. Only One?

**Title: Terror…**

****

A/N: Hey!!! Sorry sorry sorry!!! GOMEN!!! I know it took a REAL long time…. But I'm real busy… hope you enjoy it… well, they are coming out now…. Oh, a few ppl didn't really get what I meant. The black thing that Sendo picked up was Mitsui-san's watch. It was always Mitsui who read the time if you remember the last few chapters!!

Chidero: Aren't you a wee bit sad for him??? Oh? Kiyota… *plans hatches* nyahahaha….

Ayce Shade: Err… right. You play lots of comp. Games??? Well, you sound like some of my friends… though it's kinda cool to know those stuff!

Moon Princess: Really? Thanks! Mitsui's your fav?? lots of ppl reading this fic says so… well? Guess I chose the wrong person to kill!

Akira: *RUNS* rite… commeon… it's not that bad! *ducks* look here…. U shouldn't speak that kind of language among girls! *jumps* hey, hey…. Okok, I'm getting outta here!!!

The Tarik: uh… sorry about the The instead of the real tea…. Ah…. Microsoft word…. Whatever!! Yup!! There r pretty many ppl from Malaysia, though not many from Seremban… *sniff*

Sakura88: really? U're not that cruel??? Well, u certainly fooled me… hahaha!!! So? U don't believe so?? Well, try me…. actually, I'm not sure, though I think… uh… nonono! U're going to find out yourself!

Leviathan: you really hate me??? heh, heh…. Could do nothing about it. *smiles sweetly at the Mitsui in front of the PC* oww…. I'm so sorry, Mit-chan… I could do nothing about it… you'll find some of your friends coming along your way soon!

Crazy4u: err…right. *scampers off* err… pls, don't kill me!!! cool off!!

J2ain: oh? Well, maybe, maybe not…. Nyahaha!!!! Sorry I took a long time to upload!!! Uh… happy ending?? *slinks off quietly*

Krappkarmin: uh… Mit-chan? Die on you?? Uh… *whispers to herself* hopefully everyone have cooled down

Miracle: oww… comeon… someone have to die… don't cry 4 Mitsui-san….

fyrelighte snowfall: err… Ara??

**Chapter 16- Only One?******

            The silence broken only by sobs and sniffles lasted for at least fifteen minutes. Fifteen _long_ minutes. However, after a while, Sakuragi and Kiyota started feeling restless. 

            _We can't stay here for ever…. What if it comes again? We would be wasting all Mitchy's effort_, Sakuragi thought as he saw Miyagi trying to comfort a _very_ shaken Ayako. 

            _We need OUT! _Kiyota wanted to scream at all the glum faces around him. Sure, they were sad, Mitsui-sempai was their friend, all of theirs, no matter how hostile he may have seemed to be… but still, they had no other choice, they had to get out.

            'Minna-san,' Sakuragi started, at the same time Kiyota cleared his throat. They looked at each other, a little shocked. Sendo, shaken out of his deep thoughts about Mitsui, looked up, and seemed to be trying to clear his head. Rukawa opened his eyes, which were blood-shot. Cold or not, this was too much for him. Too many deaths, hurt…. Maki on the other hand, just sighed softly, too tired to care. He was getting really irritated, and who could tell him not too. They were all tired and irritated too.

            'Minna-san,' Sakuragi tried again.

            'Let's get out of here.' There was a pause as Sakuragi let that one quiet sentence sink into everyone's mind. 

            'Yeah, we have to, or we'll end up like the rest,' Kiyota said. It was unusual that Kiyota and Sakuragi could and would talk so softly…

            _It's beyond unusual, _Maki thought, _it was totally… there's no word to express what I feel and to describe it…_

            … but considering the number of unusually weird things that had happened…

            Yasuda sighed audibly. Everyone turned their attention to him, who turned crimson immediately. 

            'How the hell are we supposed to get out of here?' Takano asked, sounding a little angry.

            'Yeah… we don't even know what that thing might have in store for us next,' a Ryonan freshman said aloud.

            'We might as well rot in here,' another piped out.

            'That might be what you wish, but certainly not what I do. You can stay in here and rot, but I'm getting out of here, along with those who believe that life is not so simple, easy and meaningless that we can just waste it away for no apparent reason… and I'm not going to waste all Mitsui-sempai's effort. I'll go, even if I'm the only one to go with all those two, and at least, if I don't make it, at least, I would know that I did try to survive. If it's God's will for me to be killed by the pig of a centipede, then so be it, but I'm not going to sit here and kill myself,' Sendo said standing up, slowly. There was a long surprised pause. Sendo's voice, usually cool and carefree, had a certain commanding tone in it. it was the voice of a captain, a leader, someone the rest were scared to go against, not because he was strong, but because he was usually right. 

            'Baka smiley,' Sakuragi whispered. 

            'I'm with you.' Maki stood up. 

            'Maki-san.' It was Kiyota. 

            'Me too.'

            'Ahh… bench-warmer.'

            Rukawa stood up too, hearing a stray 'Kitsune,' muttered somewhere. Slowly, one by one, they all stood up, even Takano and the other two substitutes. 

            Inwardly, Sendo smiled. He had gotten them to believe in him and now, he had to lead them out. Even though he did not like that responsibility… but at least, after a real long time, they had finally summoned enough courage to move on. 

            He knew that now, they were all looking at him to lead them, and so lead them he did. He started off by arranging them into four lines with a few people helping, namely, Fujima, who in the end was to stand at the front of the first row, Sakuragi, who stood behind Fujima's row, Jin, who stood in front of the second row, and Kiyota behind. Hanagata in front of the fourth row, and Rukawa behind, Koshino in front of the last row, and Maki at the end of that row. He on the other hand was to lead them all, right in front. And though he didn't like that idea, he had a certain feeling that he was safe, cause he was not the one _IT _was looking for. 

            'Do not let go of each other's hands no matter what, okay? It may slow you guys down, but don't ever let go.' Sendo said to them. He had thought of putting someone behind all of them, but that idea itself scared the hell out of him… imagine how it would scare the poor person chosen. It was too vulnerable, standing behind alone. 

            Having made up his mind and all of them arranged, which took almost an hour and a half, Sendo stepped to the gym door, the only thing separating them from the centipede, or whatever it was. He closed his eyes, and drew in a deep breath, trying to muster all his courage together, which stubbornly tried to slip away. 

            He threw the door open. All that greeted them were the raindrops, beautiful moon, and cool wind. A few sighs of relieve ran though the crowd. 

            Sendo stepped out of the gym, followed by everyone else. Light rain fell on them, refreshing them a little. The smell of fresh grass wafted up Sendo's nose, and instead of grimacing, he grinned. The smell of grass, so real and near, seemed to chase away all the other illogical thoughts that were running lose and destroying every other thing in his brain. 

            _Illogical, but real_, a cold grim voice reminded him.

            'Shut up,' Sendo muttered softly, pushing that thought away. Slowly, they advanced to the entrance of Shoyo High. 

            _The first-year block… the second-year block, Sendo mentally calculated as they drew nearer and nearer to their only means of escape and freedom. _

            _Third-year b… _

            Ayako screamed suddenly, cutting Sendo's thoughts short abruptly. A few gasps and screams echoed Ayako's warning scream. 

            'Uhh…' was all Sendo, blur and shocked to be shaken out of deep thoughts so suddenly, could utter. 

            'Don't let go! Hold each other's hands firmly!' Fujima shouted, feeling his hand being tugged behind as they all retreated from… from the huge gigantic _moth that was fluttering on top of all of them. _

            Sendo grasped Mitsui's watch tightly… they couldn't lose now… couldn't and wouldn't…

            As he looked down at the watch, he heard the cruel mocking laughter that was roaring in his head. 

            11:57 PM.

* * * * * * * * 

            _It wants someone special… one particular person… only one…_

_            **Me….**_

* * * * * * * * 

            Rukawa watched a certain someone who happened to realize that he was wanted… and not in a nice way too…

            _He found out by himself... _

            He had known, but had not had the heart to tell, because he knew, time would tell, and even if he told it out, the thing might still have killed the rest because… because…

            _It itself had not realized…_

A/N: hope you guys liked it!!! it's kinda short, I know… but I'm real sorry!!! I know it's been a REAL LONG TIME!!! SORRY!!!


	18. Scary?

**Title: Terror…**

****

FIRST OF ALL, let me tell all of you who have already read this chapter, I'm really sorry I had to reupload, but I found a few mistakes, and decided to correct them. And anyway, something is wrong with my account, some of my reviews for the first chapter of this ficcy was deleted… somehow… when I uploaded the last chapter 18, and not only of this fic, there was another fic where some reviews disappeared. Anyone has any ideas? So, anyway, I thought if I may cancel that chapter and upload a new one, my account won't be so will be alright. Anyway, I didn't change a lot of it, just some tiny errors, so you won't be missing much if you don't read this again. 

A/N:Hello again! I did take a long time… and I bet you guys are already bored with my excuse…. But I couldn't help it!!! *wail* I had this band performance, and I had to practice everyday, staying back and LOADS of time, taking up my school time. Imagine practicing from 7am to 5pm…. Could have no time to update… believe me!!!

Chidero: Going mad? Aren;'t you already mad? Nyhaahahaha… oh, man, gotta stop laughing like that…. Nah, come to think of it… don't really want to waste a death on a noisy… uh… monkey

Akira: Err… *inches closer* are you still mad about Mitsui-san? *Akira flashes Murusame* uh… right… looks like you don't think of him as a hero yet. Uh… I'll just leave quietly for now.

Zaki Spirit Wolf: Thanks… wow, that's a nice name, where did you think of it? Read on… thankfully this chappie is not as short as the last. Thanks again… you're one of the few who wouldn't kill me because of the suspense…

Teh Tarik: Eeep!!! *Buys a wig for the tarik as she sees a bald teh tarik. Don't tear your hair out over a cliffhanger!!!

Alexia: Oh… okay, thanks… yup…he was importent for that chapter. He's not that important in this.

Kathleen: You really want to know? I'm pleased to inform you that his name appears in this chapter!!! Nyhahahaha… I'm going mad… too much of trumpet playing has messed my brains up, excuse me…

Sakura88: Would it be alright with you if I continued calling you by your old penname? Well it is a little easier to spell… yup… I'm going sot also… yup, I love add-Maths too!!! It's fun!! Though I'm sorta dying through accounts and the rest as I skip all the classes and am still lost… now must study. Do u go 4 tuition?

Leviathan: Kenji? *watches as Leviathen kneels* well… I wonder… *reads on* *gulp* uh… kill me? err…. I see… well, err… *goes off into hiding*

Crazy4u: nahlar… I'm not that easily tersinggung. Don't go mad yet, enjoy form two…. It's fun. And yeah, I agree… lot's of seniors act terribly… they think they're grand… I don't really respect ALL my seniors…. But at least most of them… *grins* err… this chappie is not that short… so, don't shoot me again, considering that I don't have nine lives… and I have been killed again and again… *grins* ^_^;   

J2ain: I'm sorry you had to wait some more… but I just couldn't upload it soon enough. Jersey number? No… it didn't… but it may be a good idea… I'll think it through… maybe I can fit it inside the fic. Middle of an empty room in the middle of the night? Good!! Go on reading then…. Hopefully you won't get a heart attack!!!

Krappkarmin: Yeah, school is really killin!!!! God SOS!!!! Hopefully u enjoy this and cool off some of ur stress…

Miracle: Oh? Good… *stares as Miracle goes dreamy* *reads on* uh… what? *Throws a shoe at miracle* you don't care about Sendo??!!! Cruel!!! Nyahahaha… ok… I'm really going mad.

Chapter 17- Scary? 

            'Stop screaming!' Rukawa shouted. An ear-ringing silence followed. Hearing someone who was suppose to only sleep and play basketball shout was weird enough to shut all of them up. The moth, however, was still up there, fluttering, waiting for them to get ready to defend themselves, as if mocking their slowness.

* * * * * * * *

            _I know, something in me… this definite sureness, that I'm the one that it wants. That stupid fluttering moth is counting down… counting down to my death. It's just me… if am I ready, ready to face it, ready to save my friends…?_

_            I… I… will save them…_

* * * * * * * * 

_            Why? Why did it only want one? _Rukawa questioned himself, eyeing everyone – or at least, trying to eye all of the scared and cowering students who shrank back from the moth. The moth who had killed so many… Shiozaki-sempai, Mitsui-sempai… and most of all Saori-nee-chan. Rukawa suddenly felt anger rise in him, seeping from his bloodstream into his brains. He nearly lost himself then, succumbing to his anger. He wanted to run forth, to rip the stupid moth in half, making it pay for all the hurt it had caused, for all the lives it had taken. 

            He would have done so… but a rustling from his left distracted his thoughts. That, and several screams of shock, warning and plain terror. Rukawa's mind blanked for a while… then snapped back to reality. He ran his hand over his messy and totally drenched hair, as a fork of lightning momentarily lighted the field. 

            'Don't follow!' Rukawa heard it as if from afar, as if drowned not by the whip crack of thunder, but by the ages that had somehow gotten between them. The ages that now separated them, the ages, which now, made them bid each other goodbye. 

             'Don't follow!' the person repeated, shouting behind his back, as he ran on. Some of them looked as if they were on the verge doing exactly the opposite. The moth suddenly swooped down on the tall boy, chasing him, chasing the tall captain who was running with a petrified look on his face. 

            'Go! Get lost! This is the only way!' All of these seemed to happen in slow motion, as if this was a movie or a novel, not real life. Rukawa seemed paralyzed, nailed to the spot. No matter how he urged his limbs to move, he couldn't twitch a nerve. 

            'Damn! Don't do it!' Fujima called out, raising his voice over the howl of the wind, and the fierce shower of rain.

            'Sempai! What the hell!' Kiyota screamed. Jin seemed to shock for words. He just stared at the retreating back of his captain, which were covered by the shadows of the moths' wings. It was so dark and black… Jin shuddered, took a deep breath and broke forth. That was when Rukawa's paralysis broke. He stepped up, and grabbed one of Jin's hands. 

            'Sendo! We have to move! Now!' Rukawa screamed. 

            _There was no hope for Maki left… he's gone… sayonara…_

            'But Maki…' 

            'He chose to sacrifice, like Mitsui-sempai. There was nothing we could do, and there is nothing we can do to help him. We still have us… let's move on with what we have… we don't have the time, and can't afford to look back if we want to survive!' Rukawa said softly, and in his own way, he sounded threatening though they could hardly hear him through the rain. His soft voice seemed to have a certain effect on all of them, and they were silent for a while. And though that while had seemed _long… at least to some of them it did seem long, it was, in reality only a few seconds passed._

            'But that's not back!' Jin shouted suddenly… hysterically.

            'That is not BACK! He's not dead! He has a chance, no matter how slim it is, it's still a chance, to survive. We have to get to him! It's not past! Damn it! It's present, happening right before our eyes.'

            'You'd rather sacrifice all our lives to save one? All of us? Maki's life may be more important to you compared with the rest, but the price of a life is same… everywhere… a life is alive, nothing can compare with that, and no other's can compare with that one's life. No, even Maki's life can't be compared with Kiyota's, that's the price of a life, a price that can never be paid,' Hanagata said, softly, comforting, and yet, stern.

            'He was chosen. He had to go… he was the one that it really wanted… it really wanted from the start. And nothing is going to change that. Enough people have died… let's move on… Maki will be the last… because he is the ONE. If we could just get out of here, this nightmare will be over, I feel it…deep in me. It will be end.' The wind swirled around them softly, making them feel, as weird and impossible as it may seem, peaceful. 

            'But… but he's our friend…' Jin whispered. Kiyota looked up at the sky, at the full moon and twinkling stars. They all looked bloody. The full moon… it looked bloody.

            'He's… not… he… he was. He's not our friend… he was.' Kiyota whispered. Tears started welling up from his eyes.

            'He is, Kiyota. He still is. Friendship doesn't end that easily. It will go on, even after one has gone. Your memories… your memories of him still live on, and he lives in you. So, he still is your friend,' Fujima said, wiping the rain drops that nearly entered his eyes. 

            _Damn! If only I could help! Kiyota nearly screamed in rage, frustration, and hurt._

            The wind blew harshly, sending shivers down everyone's spine. They were soaking wet, and cold like hell, but they still stood there, with the moon's glow illuminating parts of them…. The sight, the whole scenario seemed reverent, and they didn't feel like breaking the atmosphere right then. Crystal-like raindrops continued falling, mingling with their tears. 

            After a few seconds that seemed like eternity, a Shoyo first-year spoke up… not out of will, but mere intuition. 

            'For you maybe, but not for us.'

            'Huh?'

            'The nightmare may end for all of you, but not for us.' The rest still stared at him, uncomprehendingly. 

            'Don't you see? This is our school. We see it everyday. We see the _gym everyday! How can it be over for us?' his voice was amazingly soft and even.        _

            'You're not the only one, some of us have lost friends… everything. And all of us have lost part of ourselves, didn't we? We lost our believes, we might develop phobias, anything… everything. There's no need for you to sink in your excuses, your self-pity… what is there to claim? We can't help you much. All we can do is to sympathize on you a little… but that's all we can do. We're all on the losing end… aren't we?' Fukuda said. His voice was placid… placating…

            'We're worse!' another Shoyo second-year shouted immaturely. There was a pause.

            'Why exactly are we discussing who's worse off in a field, under pouring rain, and with some nightmarish thingy chasing after… after… us all?' Miyamasu asked. A rippled of nervous laughter followed his question.

            Miyamasu gave Jin an oh-gosh-what-is-it-now look, as if he hadn't meant it to be funny. But most of Miyamasu's words had a little humor in them, though he never meant it to have, so he was kinda used to it by now… and yet, what Miyamasu just said wasn't exactly funny, and for once, his look was right… Jin forced a smile. 

            'Look, let's just get out of here. You may be worse of, or you may think you are worse off, or whatever, but all the once… at least some of the once who had sacrificed their lives decided to get us out. How can we still stay in here then?' Fujima asked softly, trying to ease the tension that didn't retreat with the laughter.

            'But Maki-sempai…' Kiyota said stubbornly. 

            'The best we can do is leave. We shouldn't disobey a captain's word… right?' Takesago said. Kiyota wiped his eyes, trying not to sniffle as he nodded his head.

            Sendo started forward, and after a few seconds, the rest linked hands and followed. 

            The wind shriek piercingly. Lightning flared for a moment, thunder screamed at it, seconds later, as if angry, angry at their courage to step forward…. And in the lightning's momentary illumination, Rukawa thought he saw his sister smiling down at him, encouraging him softly. Rukawa hung his head…

            _Onee-chan__… gomen… I couldn't help you then… but… allow me to live for myself a little more… to really now, enjoy… something you taught me to do… to smile, to touch another, but I didn't. all I cared for was myself… I  forgot how to… how to be happy and smile… sayonara… _

* * * * * * * * 

            Maki noted that he was already panting. It was too early to be panting. They had learnt in basketball how to breathe to conserve their energy… so they wouldn't tire so easily. He shook his head, trying to clear it, trying to breathe normally, but he was suffocating under a confining mantle of fear that threatened to choke him. 

            He could still hear the moth's fluttering wings, feel it as it beat wind towards him… and he wondered why he was running. There was no way he could win this… but he went on running anyway. Realizing that he was almost lost, Maki looked up, and at the window of the teacher's office. A solitary light was lit, and thus allowing him to look right into that particular part of the room. 

            All of a sudden, Maki couldn't breath, and yet, his limbs continued moving, suffocating him. His lungs on fire, his blood turning to freezing ice in his blood stream he still ran on. He was forced to run on. 

            _What the hell is that?_ he asked himself although he knew… there was someone… a lady with hauntingly long hair standing there by the window. Her face was pale… no… it was white. White and bony. Her eyes, so sunken that he could nearly see her pupils. Her long gray hair was all over her head, in a very messy fashion. He didn't know why he could see her so clearly when he was down while she was on the second floor. But he did know that he was nearly dying of fright. She reached her hand out, a bony white hand, as if reaching for him. And suddenly the moth was not all that scary anymore… suddenly, all the stories he had told his sister, all the childish scary stories that was not true… or so he had assured her, seemed realistically petrifying. 

            _This is so… old-fashion… more than that damn it! This is freakin CHILDISH! Come on! A lady standing by the window? It's a natural scary story that everyone uses!_

            Lighting illuminated her frame, her _bony_ frame, and all the saliva in Maki's mouth dried. He could feel his heart thudding in his body. Numbly, he unconsciously told himself that the most typical scary stuff would be the worst when it really happened. 

            She opened her mouth, and let out a high pitch shriek, screaming like a banshee. From afar, Maki heard the moth let out another shriek in reply… as if scared. _The moth… scared_

            Maki tore his eyes away from the window… and realized that there was only one way out for him. He was faced with no other choice, except to go in there… into that dark corridor. He headed for it, without a thought whatsoever, even though he knew that it would eventually lead to the office if he went in the correct way. But he had no thought of doing so. He would _never_ go anywhere near it. 

            However, as he neared it, he felt a splinter of pure fear push its way into his heart. He glimpsed the moon, shrouded by clouds… feeling that that was the most innocent thing in the world… and yet, knowing that this was the last time he would ever see it…

A/N: EEP!!!! Don't kill me because of the cliffhanger!!1 I didn't want to do it… but I couldn't help it. it was too tempting. Anyway, it was already too long and I didn't know what to write next!! Gomen, gomen… hopefully you guys liked it!


	19. Choices

**Title: Terror…**

****

A/N:hehehe… I'm running out of excuse for my late updates… I'm really sorry… but here's one you'll be familiar with,,, EXAMS… so don't kill me ne, minna-san. Okay… anyway, I realized that some of you were mentioning something about a Ring ficcy… well, in view of all the things that have been going on in ff.net, do let me say that I have never read the Ring fic and I don't know any Sadakos… just clearing my name… *grin. Anyhow, I was so gatal (direct translation would be itchy… but it's more like mischievous here) to put that lady there, now I have no idea how to continue… BTW, I would really like to thank all of you who have stayed through with me from the first chapter. Your reviews had really helped me lots… I was just going through my first chapter and realized how terrible I was writing at that time… I'm not all that good now, but I do think I have improved. Thanks a LOT.

Satan's Angel: Am continuing… sorry for the delay *grin*

Dessert Star: THANKS!!! I'm terrible at writing romance though, that is why I stick to good old horror

Akira: Mitsui-kun? Come back to life? I think I have a sorta plan on getting him back in a scene again or something…. Though not come back to life.. *grin* I'm a peaceful girl… u can c that in my ficcy can't u?? hehehe….

Teh Tarik: Right….  You don't have to come over to Seremban just to kill me… actually I'm going over to KL on Wednesday… one of my friends shifted there… err.. pontianak? Your laughter sounded more like one,,, heheheh… *runs into hiding *

Alexia: Bad happenings in other places of the world?? *blank look* hehehe… I'm trying hard to describe stuff… but am realizing that I can't really stretch my words to really describe how I actually feel…. 

Sakura88: you do? Wat tuition? I go 4 BM… it's not uncommon over here for ppl to like add-maths, though I wouldn't actually say it was common either… however, I must say I LOVE Log… so how? Exams passed? 

Crazy4u: Right… hopefully I'm smaller than cacing… than can go and hide somewhere… *goes in search of Gandalf to transform her into something smaller than a worm…

J2ain: Yeah… but Maki doesn't know that, now does he? *smiles evilly* Saori? Hmm… maybe… u have great ideas, you know… I'll see if it works! Thanks!

Krappkarmin: nah, I won't stop writing, as long as there r people still reading… *grin* 

Miracle: err… Maki old man? Okay……….. right…. I had to add it in because I was sooooooo gatal, and only now to find that I am having some trouble…

Rae Fear: Yikes… I wonder why no body ever takes note of my pleas… *grin*thanks for reading it through… it must have taken pretty long…

**Chapter 18-Choice **

            Darkness loomed ahead, ready to swallow him. By now, Maki, terrified and lost, was already panting. He felt as if he had ran for an hour, when in reality, he knew, it was a mere five minutes. His lungs were burning, and he realized that this was his limit. There was nothing he could do, but accept it. He was far too tired to go on. Maki's tired face turned comically into a thoughtful expression, still trying to keep his pace, and manage not to suffocate at the same time. He was pretty sure that there was something amiss in here. He had felt that for the past minute. Something was missing… something was not right. 

            The thudding of his footsteps echoed all the way down the corridor, making poor Maki wonder where and when would it end. Every breath he took was a terrible chore, and he heard each breath clearly, as if it were magnified by a loud microphone…

            _Loud…__ CRAP! That's it! Maki slowed down to a joy, gulping in as much air as possible. _It's so damn quiet in here…_ He listened hard, and could not hear anything. No flapping of gigantic moth wings… nothing, except his own footsteps, breathing and the trashing of the rain. Maki slowed more, to a total stop, and chanced a look behind. Part of him was so sure that the moth would suddenly jump out and attack him, sucking his very soul… and yet, another part of him just knew that it wasn't there at all. Outside, lightning hit, and the whole corridor was lit momentarily. _

            Maki was turning ever so slowly. He could feel each muscle tensing, getting ready for any outcome. Time seemed to stretch out, as he turned. When he finally reached the end of his turn…

            There was nothing there. Nothing at all… though of course it was hard to be sure. The moon was not giving out much light, as it was directly above the building, thus, not allowing Maki to see it. The stars were giving out much lesser light, but he knew. There was nothing there. A simple truth that seemed so hard to accept… so hard to believe. **THERE-WAS-NOTHING-THERE.**

            Chest heaving, Maki slumped onto the wall of the corridor. He was helluva glad that the moth was gone, but heck! He couldn't believe that he had ran on for about one whole minute, wasting all his energy… and also, though it WAS gone, that didn't mean that he was safe. He was still in a terrible fix. He didn't know where the hell he was, and where he was to go.

            His sweat was dripping from his face to the floor slowly, drop by drop as he continued thinking. He felt it… heard it.

            *Plink**plink*

            _Sounds like the floor is made of metal, Maki thought, not really focused. His mind was too into trying to find a way out. It was a while before what he thought actually hit him, and he stood up straight._

            *Plink**plink*

            _Metal…_

            Maki squatted down, reached out and touched the floor. _Cold. His usually lineless face wrinkled up in concentration, trying to fathom all the things that were going on. He rapped the floor for confirmation. Its hollow sound was confirmation enough, and he stood up, sighing heavily, scared and worried. _

            Maki rubbed his shirt over his face, drying up all the sweat that still lingered there, thinking hard. As far as he knew, no one ever used metal flooring… no one in their right mind in a normal school corridor that was… anyway, a metal floored corridor in the middle of one of the most prominent schools should've been the talk of all teens. This type of stories would have been passed on from generation and generation of teens. It just wasn't possible that he knew nothing about it. 

            For some reason, Maki felt his heard fluttering, beating faster now, even though he had stopped running. Cold fear slipped into him, numbing every nerve, wrecking his system… and though part of himself was screaming for himself to relax, as there was nothing to fear… no reason to, he could not stop his racing heart. And after all, a steel-floored corridor was reason enough, considering the circumstances. 

            Lighting crashed, thunder trashed, and the rain got steadily heavier. Maki was in a dilemma. He could now, do two things. Proceed forward, or turn backwards. He felt, deep down, the best thing to do is to go forward. He had no idea where he was, and how he got here, and the mere prospect of turning back, somehow got his heart racing. It was true that going forward was not a solution… but nothing in here was a matter of solution, it was just a matter of better choice and a longer wait. Intuition told him to move forward, and he complied with it, rather willingly.

            He started walking forward in the dark, breathing steadily. He was already recovering from his long run, quickly… he was trained to do so. As he continued forward, he didn't once let his guard down although there was no gigantic moth or woman-with-a-bony-frame around. 

            As he moved forward, his sweat continued to fall, drop by drop.

            *Pink**plink*

* * * * * * * * 

            'Finally!' Fujima muttered under his breath as the main gates of Shoyo High came into view. 

            'Ne, Fujima… do you think that IT would let us go that easily? I mean… it doesn't really take long to um… you know,' Hanagata gulped, '… kill Maki and…'

            'I dunno, Hanagata… but I just feel that… it doesn't bother about us. It wants Maki, and it got him. It seems sorta sufficient for it… but then again, we would never know until we finally step out of the gate, now would we?' 

            As they reached the gate, however, Rukawa and Sendo just stopped. Breathing hard, both of them glanced at the tallest building, feeling… somehow _knowing that Maki was in there. The rest stopped too, looking at them. The raindrops were getting bigger, and falling harder, drenching them all even more. _

            'Rukawa, Sendo… daijoubu? Come on, we need to get out… now,' Koshino called out. 

            'This is it… we're here… but I think it's gonna take much more guts to step out of the gate… more courage than most of us have,' Sendo muttered, loud enough for almost all of them, huddled together, to hear. Rukawa on the other hand, just continued staring up at the building, his eyes filled with tears. He could almost hear Maki's thoughts… his feelings…. So many… so many had passed from his midst just like that… and he was yet to get used to it…

            'Sendo? What on Earth do you mean?' Jin's voice cut through the rain.      

            'Try it yourself,' Rukawa murmured softly, only for Jin and several others to hear. Jin froze a little at the sound of Rukawa's voice. He swallowed hard, and turned towards the gate. He looked at it hard for a long time, seeing nothing different, _sensing_ nothing much either. He tried to move forward, only to realize that he was stuck. He couldn't budge an inch. Fear, terror, horror and sorrow gripped his so tightly, paralyzing him. Seconds past… and Fukuda, feeling frustrated now as precious seconds ticked by while Jin stood immobile, let out a aggravated sigh. He was already getting a headache with all the rain on his head…

            'I don't know what the hell is wrong with all of you,' he muttered, moving forward. As he neared the gate however, he suddenly stopped. He urged himself to move on, but found it impossible. He was rooted to the spot. Beside him, he felt Jin stumbling back, unable to take the tension anymore. Dark, black fear encased him then, suffocating him… and together with it, came a sense of hopelessness, something Fukuda had yet to learn.

* * * * * * * * 

            Maki was getting impatient. He was in a nervous wreck… and the silence was not helping much. He was so taken by fear, and he yearned to see the end of the corridor… immediately.

            'Damn!' he muttered frustrated, picking up his pace at the same time. He had gone no more than five steps however, when suddenly, he stopped. Miraculously, his wish had come true. He was facing the end of the corridor. It broke into two here. A few meters in, both to the left and right, was a door. Both doors glowed softly. One a dark blue-black, the other, a bright red. 

            Suddenly, a wave of deja-vu attacked him. It was so strong that he had to lean on the wall for support. The sense of deja-vu ebbed away, leaving him hollow and filled with a certain sense of desperate fear… _desolate_ fear. Suddenly, he wished that this corridor had no ending… that he could just walk on, for the rest of the night, until daylight.

            _Nat a very good idea, as it's only, Maki looked at the watch that Sendo had somehow managed to pass to him as he ran past him, _around __12:10_. Maki knew that it was Mitsui's watch that he was holding now… and though he knew not why it felt so important, he had worn it tightly around his wrist, fearing of losing it. Maki shuddered involuntarily, and assured himself that walking for hours would still have been a better solution compared to this. _

            _Anyhow, Maki thought, shaking his apprehension and fear away, _we don't always get what we want, and the corridor did end, and once again, I'm stuck… Sheesh!...__

            Maki turned from the dark-shaded blue door, to the contrasting bright shade of red on the other side. Deep down, he made his decision right away… however, it only seemed right in this situation, to ponder and think and analyze deeply, forgetting the fact that he was supposed to be running away from a random chaser. He had a bad feeling about the bright red door. It was too cheerful, and it didn't fit into this gloomy atmosphere… and it also reminded him of the blood seeping though the gym doors… Ito's blood….

            _That seemed like centuries away… Maki sighed, turning back to the other door. Fear crept into his heart stealthily. No… it wasn't apprehension, but plain cold terror. Maki then turned to the last option… back. However, he cancelled his initiative immediately when he saw what laid before him… total darkness that ran goodness knew how many miles. He was about to turn back, as he couldn't see anything. However, at that moment, lighting hit, lighting the corridor up for a moment, and… for that moment, Maki's heart refused to beat. For that moment, Maki forgot how it was to breath. During that short illumination, Maki had seen a figure… out of the corner of his eyes. It was advancing towards him… and he could feel sweat starting to pour out of him again. That figure was human, no long white hair or millions of caterpillar feet… and it was far away, yeah… but Maki could not stop the waves of fear… hell torrents of fear that was bellowing in him, closing his throat up. _

            _The worst thing of all is the fact that I'm alone. I'm miles and miles away from any help what-so-ever. That's the worst… I'm **alone**__…_

            When Maki finally remembered how to breath, he scrambled over to the dark bluish door. He reached for the door handle. Dead-cold. For reasons vague to Maki himself he was starting to sweat more than ever. It fell from him one by one.

            *Plink**plink*                                                   

            Maki was having a hard time moving… he seemed to be moving in slow motions. Slowly, he strained his muscles to twist the knob. It complied little by little. Maki took one last look at the red door, and shoved his way in, the image of the walking man still carved in his mind. 

            _Crap… I could have been imagining it! Quit shivering! Maki ordered himself as he leaned on the door with his eyes closed. Now, there was absolutely no way to return… he could only continue forward. _

            Slowly, he opened his eyes. 

            He was in another corridor. From the look of it, Maki deduced that it had been fashioned according the early 60ties. The whole corridor was laced with red carpet as far as his eyes could see it. There were no windows, but even so, Maki could trace no stuffy odor closed rooms usually had. His eyes roamed around, finding for something, which would most-likely be an air-conditioner, to explain this, but found none. Here, it was the wall that looked like it was made of steel. On the sides of the wall, pretty high up, candles were lit. Placed some distance away from each other, it provided enough light for Maki. Maki noted that the wax were melting, which meant that they were real, old-fashion candles… not the electric ones used now a days. Several knight-suits were placed with their backs to the wall, holding up axes. That sight was enough to send Maki cowering… but he couldn't do that… he wasn't allowed to. 

            The corridor wasn't really wide, and could hardly fit in three people without them feeling uncomfortable. It was pretty high though, about twice Maki's height. 

            _What the hell? Is this still supposed to be Shoyo High? Maki suddenly thought, __it looks more like some kind of old-fashioned castle to me…_

            The hair on the nape of Maki's neck prickled. He felt scared.    

A/N: So? How do you think it went?? Hehehe…. Yeah, I'm wondering if I still know what to write. Again I would really like to thank all of you for reading all these… oh, btw, can I have a vote of how many ppl would kill me if I killed of Maki-san? Err…. Just votes thank you, I don't want demonstration… *grins uncertainly* 


	20. Time

**Title: Terror…**

****

A/N: *wail* I'm REALLY REALLY sorry. I had a terrible writer's block and had no idea how to continue. Funnily it was my chemistry teacher who gave me the idea. Not directly, of course… and actually, it has nothing much to do with chemistry either. He was just talking about Einstein and I got an idea…sometimes it does pay to listen to teachers…hehehe. Look, this fic was not meant to be so long… but I just don't know how to end it, and I'm just expanding the plot more and more. I hope you guys bear with me… hehehe. Well, then, read on!!

Akira: Err… U would kill me? *whispers*… nyahahaha…. Hisashi-sempai? The figure? I don't think so… I'm not sure though. Don't tell me you haven't gotten over Hisashi's death… whops… ehehe… *runs off with Akira chasing her*

Sakura88: Do you speak English at home? I mean… if you do, isn't it a little waste of time to go for English tuition? Oh, good… at least you're not going to kill me… hehehe.. well, read on.

Crazy4u:Really? Thanks a lot!!! Though I wouldn't dream on taking her place… she's too good. Err…? No more killing? Hhehehehehe… ehehehe,,,, ehehe.. ehe…. 

J2ain: I told you before, but I'll tell you again, you have TERRIFIC ideas… I mean it!! hehe… I myself have no idea whatsoever how Mitsui's watch can help… I dunno… it would be cool if Maki could come out of the reed door, all save and sound…. I myself would love that. But… read on… it's hard to explain. I don't think he's going to be able to come out by that red door, unhurt and all….

Krappkarmin: Those four are my favorite characters too… but… I'm not sure if I can keep… err, nvm, read on, and then you'll know who I'm talking about… hehehe

**Chapter 19- Time**

            Maki continued inching forwards, slowly, apprehension still gripping him in a death grip. It felt cold, it felt extremely weird… it felt as if he was _shrinking. Maki shivered slightly._

            _Baka__!__ You can't be shrinking, he reprimanded himself sternly, trying to convince himself that the corridor was the one that was expanding. But deep in him, he knew better._

            Each step he took, he felt smaller. Each step took a bucketful of courage to perform. Each step seemed to kill a part of him, he just didn't know _why!_ He felt lighter, more empty as he passed knight-suites after knight-suites. Knowledge and experience seemed to be oozing out of him.

            After what felt like an hour, he stopped, taking in a deep breath. Without much of a thought, Maki turned behind, to see how far he had gone. He had, after all, been walking in a straight line all the while. A small gasp escaped his open mouth at the sight of what stood behind him. Utter darkness and nothingness. Immediately, he turned to the front, eyeing everything around him suspiciously. But everything looked exactly the way it looked a minute ago. Everything looked real enough. For the second time that night, Maki reached down fearfully, and touched the floor.

            _Real.___

            The red carpet he was standing on was real. However, a foot after where his feet were, the red carpet disappeared into nothingness. Maki turned his whole body to the back, now facing the… void. It felt… strange, looking at nothing. 

            Slowly, he edged backwards a little and sat down on the red carpet, his leg folded in front of him. Before his very eyes, he saw the floor where his legs once were, disappearing. 

            Maki took a deep breath. He reached out a little, and then, suddenly plunged his hand into the darkness. Immediately he felt excruciating pain. There was a strong force pulling him from the other side, so strong, he felt as if his hand was being torn apart. Maki stifled a scream, not knowing why. There was no one there to hear him anyway… but that was the last thing on his mind right now. He could feel that it, whatever it was, yearned to suck his whole body in, tearing it apart just the way it was tearing his hand apart, and he was determined not to let it do so. It hurt too much. 

            Acting impulsively, he quickly pulled his hand away from that… _thing. One hand groping the red carpet behind him, his legs pushing against the carpet as hard as he could, he uttered a soft scream as searing hot pain crushed his bones… or at least it felt like it was crushing his bones._

            Just when he felt as if he was losing to that force, he managed to pull out, and was thrown backwards by his own momentum. Breathing hard, mouth open, he saw the floor and the surroundings in front of him magically dissolving into emptiness and darkness. He took in a deep shaky breath. 

            _Now there's seriously no turning back, he thought sourly. He inspected his hand carefully. There was no sign of it having nearly been torn out of its socket, as how Maki felt a few moments ago. The pain too had left, leaving almost no trace that it had been there. When he was satisfied that it was okay, he turned back forwards and proceeded on. With each step, his mood and morale lowered._

* * * * * * * * 

            'Damn it! Why can't we move?' Sakuragi swore.

            'Maa, maa, Sakuragi,' Kongure muttered, patting the tall boy. One look at the blank look the bespectacled boy's face held told the whole world that he was merely doing that out of habit. His mind was wondering in another world. 

            A soft wind swirled around them. The rain was now thinning, but Sendo still felt cold. All he wanted to do now was to snuggle in his bed; after a sumptuous meal that was; and fall asleep with the covers pulled right up till his chin… or maybe even over his head. All at once, Sendo felt a surge of hot fury. How could their lives be destroyed in a matter of hours like that? What gave whichever idiot who was trying to destroy their lives the right to do so? His anger blazed from within, lighting up a bluish-whitish flame in front of his eyes. 

            'ArrrrgggggggghhhhhhhHHHHHHH!!!' Sendo screamed suddenly, taking all the others by surprise, as he rammed into the barrier with all his might. Everything in him was focused on the whitish flame. 

             _I'll_ call it hope,_ Sendo thought impetuously, as he ran pass where Jin stopped. __I'll__ call it hope. _

            Everything blanked out.

Sendo opened his eyes to a good quantity of whispering and cheering. He turned back, and realized the truth. He had made it! He was out!! At long last… he had made it.

            'Sendo? How'd you…?' Jin's mouth was slightly open. Sendo shook his head,. Indicating that he had no idea whatsoever of how he did it. All he remembered was shutting his eyes after passing where Jin was. He shut his eyes, putting everything into that white flame… his energy, anger, hurt, happiness, depression… everything, focused only in that imaginary flame… and… and… that was all. He was not stopped. He didn't feel anything pushing him back.

            Gasps pierced his ears, and he guided his mind back to reality. He could hear footsteps getting louder and more insistent, and in a few seconds, Rukawa was standing in front of him, looking more spent and tired out compared to him.       

            Rukawa grinned a little, something he had never done since he was about six. However, his grin was wiped out from his face as he saw Sendo's eyes widen with shock and terror. He tuned back towards Shoyo High, a sense of foreboding puckering within him. 

            'Na…ni?' he whispered, his normally detached face filled with shock and fear.

* * * * * * * *

            Maki continued shuffling forwards, feeling terrible distressed, angry and irritated. It _was_ unfair after all, wasn't it?

            'Maybe I should just let myself fall backwards,' Maki thought aloud, pushing a memory that was shooting up his subconscious away absently. 

            As he continued forwards, he still felt as if he was shrinking, getting smaller… younger. And, he realized that memories after memories kept pricking him, flashing past his eyes. He could still feel the knowledge and experience seeping out of him, and deep in him, he wondered. 

* * * * * * * * 

            A black mist was slowly settling down in front of the gate, obscuring Rukawa's view of the others still in Shoyo. He caught sight of Shoyo's building then, and felt that Maki was calling out for help. He dismissed that thought quickly. If the thing hadn't killed him yet, then Maki was in deep trouble. It must want to torture him…

            Rukawa shook his head hard. Ordering himself to stop thinking such stupid thoughts, even though he knew it was not all that ludicrous; he looked over at Sendo, as if asking for instructions. Sendo, however, was inching forward slowly until he was nearly touching the fog. 

            'Guys? Koshino? Can you all hear me?' 

            'Sendo? What the hell is wrong?' Hanagata's voice penetrated though the mist, a little confused, and more than a little annoyed. 

            'I dunno, I think we're blocked by this black fog so that both of us can't move either way.'

            'Black? You mean red, don't you?... _don't you?_' Kiyota asked. His voice was really anxious, as if the colour black meant death to him.

            'Don't yo… ARGH!' Kiyota cut himself off with a scream. 

            'Hey… what the hell?!! Sendo, Rukawa! Do something why don't you?!! The fog is coming closer to us… Oi, Sendo!' Fujima screamed in such a hurry that they could hardly discern what he was saying. 

            'Err…' Sendo stammered, not really knowing what to do. He looked over to Rukawa instead, as if asking for instructions. 

            'I was the one who looked to you, don't you look at me like that,' Rukawa muttered, walking closer to where Sendo was. 

            'But…' 

            'I don't know what to do.'

            'Well, I don't either,' Sendo groaned.

            'Umm… Sendo, I hope you guys haven't forgotten us and ran off on your own,' Fukuda called out. 

            'No, we didn't even think about it… but that's an idea,' Sendo replied sarcastically. 

            'Hey, don't blame us for having our doubts. That was what you did to Maki anyway,' Takesago's voice pierced through the mist, making Sendo irritated. But he held himself back.

            'Rukawa? Help u… AHHHHHHHH!!!' 

            'Aya-chan! AYA-CHAN!!!' Miyagi's screamed.

            'Hey, what is happening over there?' Rukawa called out quickly. 

            'Stop screaming Miyagi! What is happening?' Sendo asked, louder than Rukawa. 

            'It… it took Ayako,' Jin's voice was a near whisper.           

            'It took Aya…' Jin voice was interrupted by another scream from Ayako.

            'Where?' Rukawa was scared, hell, he was terrified and panicky. 

            'Where?!" he repeated, louder and with more urgency.

            'Into the fog dammit!! Into the fog! The _black_ fog,' Kiyota said, his voice hushing at the last sentence. His voice no longer the loud and noisy voice, but hushed and scared. This was something he knew… something he was familiar with… something that had always visited him in his dreams… something from his past. His past… with Maki, when he met Maki….

            Before Sendo could stop Rukawa, he plunged into the mist, not screaming, not uttering a sound. Ayako was his senior, one of the only people he could relate with… because she reminded him of Saori-nee-san… and he wasn't letting her go. Not after Saori-nee-san.

            'Sendo,' Uozumi was whimpering now.

            'Wait. Rukawa just did a suicide mission by plunging himself in. Can you guys stop for a while to let me think?'

* * * * * * * * 

            Maki stopped walking. 

            _Something very weird is happening in here. I know it… feel it, he thought as he lifted a hand to wipe a bead of sweat from off his brow. _

            Maki happen to glimpse his palm as he was lowering his hand, and with rising horror pulled it toward his eyes, scrutinizing it with immense concentration. His hands were getting smaller, smoother, fairer… _younger. _

            A tear slid down Maki's eyes. He now fully understood what was happening to him. 

            A slim cut ran all the way up his palm.

A/N: Errr… was that a cliffhanger? Sorry if it is, couldn't help it. *grins apologetically* Rukawa has NOT died yet, so spare me first, ne? 


End file.
